Urjit Patel seen as frontrunner for RBI Deputy Governor’s post

MUMBAI: Urjit Patel, a consultant with the Boston Consulting Group, has emerged as the surprise frontrunner for the post of deputy governor at the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and is likely to replace incumbent Subir Gokarn. The government is likely to announce the appointment of Patel as the new deputy governor — in charge of monetary policy — ahead of both Gokarn and Kalpana Kochhar, an economist with the IMF, said a person aware of the government’s thinking.

The race was largely supposed to have been between Gokarn and Kochhar, according to a story carried in this paper as well as others. Patel has worked in a diverse range of institutions, both in public and private sectors. These include stints with the IMF and as a consultant to the ministry of finance as well as two years at the RBI between 1995 and 1997.

He has also been an executive director at IDFC, a private finance company , and has had a oneyear stint as president (business development ) in Reliance Industries. Patel’s key strength is said to be his specialisation in infrastructure finance. A search committee, headed by RBI governor D Subbarao, had identified three names for the post.

It considered giving an extension to Gokarn, besides considering the claims of Kalpana Kochhar and Urjit Patel. Gokarn completed his two-year term in November. Since the government had not finalised either a replacement or a new term for him, Gokarn was given a one-month extension. Gokarn, 53, was earlier an economist with rating company Crisil and had succeeded Rakesh Mohan in 2010.

Kochhar, a Ph.d in Economics from Brown University has been the division chief and senior advisor at IMF. RBI has four deputy governors. Of these two are from the ranks of RBI officials. Of the remaining two, one deputy governor, who is in charge of monetary policy is appointed by the government while the other slot is reserved for the heads of public sector banks.