Due to the higher rank of the RBI governor, it became hard for the chiefs of the other regulatory bodies – of the markets, insurance and pension sectors – to participate as equals in the deliberations of the financial sector development committee, he said.
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Other front runners were former RBI Deputy Governor Subir Gokarn, Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian, Vice Chairman of the NITI Aayog Arvind Panagariya and State Bank of India Chairperson Arundhati Bhattacharya.
“His (Patel) appointment is the right decision and is in the interest of the country”.
While the outgoing RBI governor is known as somebody who openly took on the government’s critical reform initiatives in a year ago or so, Patel is known as someone who has so far mainly stuck to his mandate and commented mostly on monetary policy-related issues.
Bilkulonline.com, New Delhi, Aug 22: Welcoming the appointment of RBI Deputy Governor Urjit R. Patel as the next Governor of the central bank, the government on Monday said that he should be able to contain inflation within the target of 4 per cent, plus or minus two percentage points. Mr Patel will have to take the same strong stance if the banks are to meet the date set for the clean-up of their balance sheets. As he has worked with the Finance Ministry as well as corporates like Reliance Industries, IDFC and Gujarat State Petroleum Corp Ltd, besides his tenure at International Monetary Fund and other organisations, they expect “better understanding” by Patel when he would be faced with various demands from the industry, government or the bankers.
A deputy governor at the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) since 2013, Patel is due to replace outgoing RBI governor Raghuram Rajan on September 4. The governor now has the rank of a Union minister of state, a position no other regulator holds.
Dr. Patel also brings to the table a decade of experience and expertise in finance, energy and infrastructure as he was associated with The Boston Consulting Group, an global consultancy.
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‘All investors, both foreign and domestic should take comfort in the fact that there will be policy continuity, ‘ said Kenneth Akintewe, Senior Investment Manager at Aberdeen Asset Management Asia Ltd in Singapore. So Dr. Patel’s appointment will not only be linked to monetary policy reading but cover other areas like FX, NPA management and financial market development etc. Also, he is in charge of the monetary policy department and advocating the more relevant consumer price index (CPI) and not the wholesale price index (WPI) as the inflation targetting benchmark. He was also a consultant to the ministry of finance between 1998 to 2001. He has also had stints at the Boston Consulting Group, Brookings Institution and Reliance Industries, an Indian energy conglomerate.
