Former RBI Governor Urjit Patel appointed as NIPFP Chariman, to replace Vijay KelkarFormer Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor Urijit Patel has been appointed as the chairperson of National Institute of Public Finance and Policy (NIPFP), an official statement said on Friday.
Patel will start his four-year tenure on June 22, succeeding former NIPFP chairman, Vijay Laxman Kelkar.
“National Institute of Public Finance & Policy is privileged to have Dr. Urjit
Patel, former Reserve Bank Governor, as its Chairperson for a four year term commencing June 22, 2020,” the release said.
The appointment indicates a return to the fold of the finance ministry after Patel resigned as RBI governor in 2018 citing personal reasons, with nine months remaining in his term.
The NIPFP was set up as an autonomous research organisation by the finance ministry, Planning Commission and some state governments and academicians.
The institute’s governing body consists of three representatives of the finance ministry, one from the RBI and Niti Aayog each, three representatives of sponsoring state governments, three distinguished economists, three heads of sister research institutions, and members of other sponsoring agencies and invitees.
Patel took over as the 24th governor of the RBI in 2016, succeeding Raghuram Rajan. In 2018, he became the first RBI governor to resign due to personal reasons and held the post for the shortest term since 1992.
Prior to that, he served as a deputy governor of the central bank handling monetary policy, economic policy research, statistics and information management, deposit insurance, communication and Right to Information.
Building up to his abrupt departure from the top post, Patel differed with the government on various issues like its intervention in central bank’s autonomy, capital transfer to government and the dual regulation of public and private sector banks among others.
Their differences came to a head when then RBI deputy governor Viral Acharya warned that compromising the central bank’s independence could be “catastrophic”.
The public spat was followed by then finance minister Arun Jaitley accusing the RBI of failing to check indiscriminate lending by public sector banks between 2008-14.
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Former RBI Governor Urjit Patel appointed as NIPFP Chariman, to replace Vijay Kelkar
Source: indiatimes.com