Some Lesser-Known Facts About Urjit Patel

BENGALURU: Former PM of India Dr Manmohan Singh said, “He is very important for the country,” referring to Urjit Patel, who is set to become 24th Governor of RBI on 4th September 2016. Coming in as a successor of former governor Raghuram Rajan who has set the benchmark of the position pretty high, Patel needs to pull a rabbit out of the hat to match his predecessor. Before being named as the RBI governor, Patel lead the RBI panel to draft the monetary policy report.

Facts about URJIT PATEL

1. Educational Qualification: A well-decorated economist, Patel has graduated from London School of Economics with bachelors in economics. Following the stint in London, he pursued M. Phil from Oxford University in 1986. He did not stop at that, aiming to be a scholar in economics, he completed PhD from Yale University in 1990.

2. Kenyan Childhood: Born and brought up in Kenya, Patel moved to UK and then, to US for his studies. He was part of the International Monetary fund after getting the doctorate degree from University of Yale. He served in various offices of IMF across the world like US, India, the Bahamas, and Myanmar.

3. Gujarat Roots: Urjit Patel’s grandfather has migrated to Kenya from Gujarat during the starting years of 20^th century. His father became a successful business person of spare parts in Kenya. He now lives with his mother in Mumbai after declining the offer of leading the newly formed BRICS Bank in Shanghai.

4. Decorated Work Profile: RBI governor-designate is best known for preparing a report that helped India shift to an inflation targeting regime for setting interest rates. Before serving RBI, Patel served as an advisor for energy & infrastructure at The Boston Consulting Group. He was also the part of Reliance Industries Limited as president of Business Development from 1997 to 2006.

5. Favorite of many:  While the current Modi-led government has appointed Patel, this man was a favorite among other people of different regimes. P V Narsimha Rao, Dr Manmohan Singh, P Chidambaram, Arun Jaitley and Raghuram Rajan, and others wanted him to advise them in economical endeavors.

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