Amid the ongoing verbal quarrel between the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the government, sources on Wednesday said that Urjit Patel, the Reserve Bank of India governor, was considering to step down from his position .
Patel, who completed two years in the central bank on September 4, has been steadfast in maintaining the top bank's independence and in handling the bad loan cases.
Within a month of Patel taking over the top job at the RBI on September 4, 2016, the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) framework was introduced to decide on rates.
Despite often being called reticent , Patel has also been speaking up his mind through his lectures and articles, at his regular post-policy press meets and also before parliamentary panels. Officials at the RBI say his main focus has always been on implementing things.
Within days of the demonetisation move also, when he was being criticised by one and all for not speaking up, Patel had told PTI in an interview in November 2016 that the central bank was taking all necessary actions to "ease the genuine pain of citizens" with a clear intent to normalise the things as early as possible.
The 54-year old Indian economist had served as the deputy governor for three years before his appointment as the governor.
In 2014, the Patel-led committee recommended the RBI to follow an inflation-targeting approach, using consumer price inflation as the base, seeing inflation control as one of the key factors to stable economic growth.
Before his stint in the central bank, Patel, who holds a PhD in economics from Yale University and MPhil from Oxford, was an advisor to the top consulting firm Boston Consulting Group (BCG).
Patel was a part of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) between 1990 and 1995 where he had addressed central banks on debt market developments and banking sector reforms.
Between 1998 and 2001, he was a consultant to India's ministry of finance. He was also chosen to be a part of several government committees such as committees on direct taxes, infrastructure, telecom, civil aviation reforms and government pension systems.
Patel has also served in the private sector. He was a part of the Reliance Industries Ltd and IDFC Ltd group as the president of business development and as the executive director, respectively.
(With inputs from PTI)
