Urjit Patel took over as the Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of India on Monday. The Government has appointed him for a period of three years from January 11, 2013.

49-year-old Patel is the fourth Deputy Governor, the other three being K. C. Chakrabarty, Anand Sinha and Harun R. Khan. He comes in place of Subir Gokarn, whose term ended on December 31, 2012.

Gokarn’s portfolios — DICGC, Rajbhasha Department, Right to Information Division, Department of Communication, Risk Monitoring Department, Financial Markets Department — were re-allocated among the existing Deputy Governors. Further, the Department of Economic and Policy Research, Department of Statistics and Information Management and Monetary Policy Department, were reporting directly to the Governor.

Patel, who is a Ph.D. (Economics) from Yale University, and M. Phil. from Oxford, has been assigned the abovementioned portfolios. Prior to his appointment as Deputy Governor, Patel was Advisor (Energy & Infrastructure), The Boston Consulting Group.

The new Deputy Governor has been a non-resident Senior Fellow, The Brookings Institution, since 2009. Patel was with International Monetary Fund (IMF) between 1990 and 1995.

Patel was on deputation (1996-1997) from the IMF to the RBI and provided advice on development of the debt market, banking sector reforms, pension fund reforms, real exchange rate targeting and evolution of the foreign exchange market.

He was a Consultant (1998-2001) to the Ministry of Finance, Department of Economic Affairs, New Delhi.

Some of Patel’s previous assignments include, President (Business Development), Reliance Industries Ltd; Executive Director and Member of the Management Committee, Infrastructure Development Finance Company Ltd (IDFC) (1997-2006); Member of the Integrated Energy Policy Committee of the Government of India (2004-2006); and Member of the Board, Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation Ltd.

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