NSE founding member R H Patil dead

Dr R H Patil, chairman, Clearing Corporation of India (CCIL) and founder-managing director of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) passed away in Mumbai, on Thursday. He was battling with lung cancer for more than three years. He was 74.

In a career spanning for almost half-a-decade, Patil had many firsts. When he started NSE in the mid-1990s, it was the first exchange to start trading stocks online. He was also founder of the National Securities Depository Limited and CCIL.

Ravi Narain, MD & CEO of NSE said, “Patil was a true institution builder, a warm and gracious human being. A person from whom I have learnt the most. I will miss him. NSE will miss him. The financial sector will miss him."

Besides the above positions, he was also the chairman of Disinvestment Commission and Local Advisory Board of BNP-Paribas and on the Board of companies like National Securities Clearing Corporation (NSCCL), National Securities Depository (NSDL) and Credit Analysis and Research (CARE). He has also been associated with the Reserve Bank of India, IDBI Bank, Stock Holding Corporation of India (SHCIL) and Credit Analysis and Research (CARE) in various capacities.

Patil was born in 1937 in Nandgad, near Belgaum in Karnataka. He studied at Pune’s Fergusson College. Then, he opted for a doctorate in economics at the Bombay School of Economics. After a two-year stint on the faculty of Post-Graduate Department of Economics in the University of Bombay, Dr. Patil joined the erstwhile Economic Department of Reserve Bank of India in 1968.

In 1975, he joined the Industrial Development Bank of India (IDBI) – a development institution then. At IDBI, he was Executive Director in charge of direct loans, treasury functions, research and planning, and merchant banking activities when he left it in 1993 to set up National Stock Exchange of India.