Urjit Patel to be new RBI Dy Governor

Renowned economist Urjit Patel's name has been cleared for appointment as the new Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of India, said a senior Finance Ministry official.

"Urjit Patel's name has been finalised," Department of Financial Services Secretary D K Mittal said in New Delhi.

Patel is at present a non-resident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, a US-based think-tank.

He is also a consultant to the Boston Consulting Group.

Patel has also been an executive director at IDFC, a private finance company.

He will take the place of Subir Gokarn, who was in-charge of the monetary policy department, has retired.

Gokarn's three-year term had ended in November 2012, but the government had given him one-month extension which expired on December 31.

According to an RBI statement on Tuesday, the monetary policy department will now be directly under Governor D Subbarao himself.

There are four deputy governors in RBI, of which two are from the central bank itself, one is from the banking sector and the fourth is an economist.

The clearing of Patel's name comes a few weeks ahead of the third quarter review of the monetary policy, scheduled to be announced on January 29.

RBI Governor in the last policy review had indicated that there could be softening of policy rate in the January policy.

K C Chakrabarty, Anand Sinha and H R Khan are Deputy Governors with RBI.

Image: RBI logo and Urjit Patel (inset).