Newly appointed Dy Guv Patra to look after RBI's monetary policy division

Newly appointed RBI Deputy Governor Michael Debabrata Patra will look after the key monetary policy department along with seven other units, the central bank said after reshuffling portfolios of deputy governors.

Besides the governor, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has four deputy governors looking after different departments.

Patra, who was the executive director, took over the post that was lying vacant since June last year when Viral Acharya resigned.

As executive director, he was a member of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the RBI, which is invested with the responsibility of monetary policy decision making in India. He will continue to be an ex-officio member of the MPC as deputy governor.

As deputy governor, Patra will look after Monetary Policy Department including Forecasting and Modelling Unit (MPD/MU), the central bank said.

He is the second insider after S S Tarapore to become deputy governor in charge of monetary policy. Mostly, the position in the past has been given to external economists.

His other portfolios include Financial Markets Operations Department, Financial Markets Regulation Department including Market Intelligence, International Department, Department of Economic and Policy Research, Department of Statistics and Information Management, Corporate Strategy and Budget Department and Financial Stability Unit.

The RBI further said Deputy Governor N S Vishwanathan will look after departments of co-ordination, regulation, communication, enforcement department, inspection department, and risk monitoring. He has also been assigned the job of Secretary's Department.

Ten departments including currency management, information technology, and foreign exchange, had been given to B P Kanungo.

Deputy Governor M K Jain will look after departments of supervision, financial inclusion, human resources, among others.

Patra, a career central banker since 1985, has worked in various positions in Reserve Bank of India.

A fellow of the Harvard University where he undertook post-doctoral research in the area of financial stability, Patra has a PhD in Economics from the Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai.