Kenyan born and educated economist Urjit Patel is set to become the governor of India’s Central Bank governor, putting East Africa’s biggest economy on the spotlight again as the source of an influential leader in one of the world’s biggest democracies.
Fifty-two year-old Urjit Patel was nominated by India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi as Reserve Bank of India Governor on Monday after months of speculations over who will replace outgoing governor Raghuram Rajan’s.
Rajan is scheduled to leave office on September 4 this year, catapulting the former student of Jamhuri High School, Urjit to the helm of RBI, India’s central bank.
Kenya captured international attention ten eight years ago when Barack Obama, the son of a Kenyan who immigrated to the US, ascendant to the US presidency. Yet given India’s low-profile in international politics, Patel’s appointment is unlikely to attract lots of media or diplomatic attention but it’s nonetheless something for Kenya to cock the Champaign about.
Childhood friends of Mr Patel say he is a reserved, observant and cool fellow. “He was a very observant guy who would study situations and people before making his conclusions. He was also a very calculating person,” The Star quotes his friend Minesh Patel, who operates a business at Industrial area, as saying.
Patel’s father was a business partner to Urjit’s late father Ravindra Patel who owned Rexo Products, a chemical company. Umrit, described by analysts and the media as being very “hawk-eyed” on inflation matters, attended Visa Oshwal Primary School in Parklands.
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He lived with his parents near Desai Road in Ngara before leaving Kenya for the UK and later the US for his graduate studies. Urjit, a well-educated economist, completed his Bachelor’s Degree in Economics from the London School of Economics, and proceeded to study Master of Philosophy from Oxford University in 1986, and a PhD from Yale University in 1990.
Between1990 to 1995, he worked at the IMF as a Kenyan citizen where he was in charge of the US, India, Myanammar and Bahamas desks.
In 2013, however, he applied for an Indian passport after which he was named deputy RBI governor on recommendations of then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
“He has very big shoes to fill given that the former governor was considered like a ‘rockstar’ with policies that led to positive macroeconomic results,” said financial analyst Aly Khan Satchu.
“It appears his appointment is Modi’s way of seeking to exert more control of the RBI given he (Urjit) is an appointee of the prime minister, I mean how free is he to carry out his role?” he posed.
Like his Kenyan counterpart, Central Bank governor Patrick Njoroge, Urjit is a bachelor. He currently lives in Mumbai with his mother who is in her 80s.
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