Don’t Expect Many Interviews From “Shy” Urjit Patel: Deepak Parekh

In a BloombergQuint exclusive, Deepak Parekh shares his insights on Urjit Patel’s personality and policy outlook.

Deepak Parekh, Former Chairman, HDFC. (Photo Courtesy: Twitter/BabubhaiVaghela)

The Finance Ministry on Saturday announced Urjit Patel as the next governor of the Reserve Bank of India. Patel is currently the deputy governor of the RBI. He was first appointed in January 2013 for a term of three years and re-appointed in January 2016 for another three-year term.

Prior to joining the RBI, Patel has worked in the private and public sector. His private sector stints include an assignment as President (Business Development), Reliance Industries Limited.

For almost a decade, between 1997 to 2006, he worked at Infrastructure Development Finance Company Limited (IDFC) as executive director and member of the management committee. During that time, HDFC Chairman Deepak Parekh, then also Chairman, IDFC, worked closely with Urjit Patel.

In an exclusive interview to BloombergQuint’s Menaka Doshi, Deepak Parekh shares his insights on Urjit Patel’s personality, policies and the challenges he faces.

Parekh says Patel is the right man for the job as he is an RBI insider, has worked with the finance ministry, and has private sector experience too

I think it’s an excellent choice. First of all, he is young and the recent trend has been to appoint governors in their early 50s, which I think is a very good thing. He is an insider... We need stability in India today. We don’t need someone new to come in and disrupt things and change things because you know it is always difficult to do that in a large organisation.

Read the full interview on BloombergQuint