New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday hailed Urjit Patel for his professional ‘integrity’ and said the outgoing RBI governor had steered the banking system from chaos to order and ensured discipline.
“Dr Urjit Patel is an economist of a very high calibre with a deep and insightful understanding of macro-economic issues. He steered the banking system from chaos to order and ensured discipline. Under his leadership, the RBI brought financial stability,” Modi tweeted.
“Dr. Urjit Patel is a thorough professional with impeccable integrity. He has been in the Reserve Bank of India for about 6 years as Deputy Governor and Governor. He leaves behind a great legacy. We will miss him immensely,” he added in another tweet.
Patel, the 24th RBI Governor, stepped down abruptly on Monday, weeks after differences between the Central bank and Government came out in the public.
In his comments, the Finance Minister Arun Jaitely also expressed appreciation for his service and wrotes, “The Government acknowledges with deep sense of appreciation the services rendered by Dr. Urjit Patel to this country both in his capacity as the Governor and the Deputy Governor of The RBI.”
He went on to add, “It was a pleasure for me to deal with him and benefit from his scholarship. I wish Dr. Patel all the very best and many more years of public service.”
Patel, 54, cited personal reasons behind stepping down from his current position.
Four days back, on December 5, Patel had refused to take any questions about the central bank’s alleged rift with the Union government, including the invocation of Section 7 of the RBI Act earlier this year.
“I would avoid those questions because we are here discussing the monetary policy resolution,” Patel said when asked about Section 7 of the RBI Act during a media conference after the bank’s bi-monthly meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) in Mumbai.
The speculations of everything not being fine between Centre and RBI started pouring in after Centre had invoked Section 7 of the RBI Act, which allows it to issue directions to the central bank governor on matters of public interest.
On October 31, amid some media reports stating that Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor Urjit Patel may consider resigning after an alleged rift with Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, the Finance Ministry clarified that the government holds “extensive consultations with the RBI from time to time”.
The Finance Ministry, in a statement released during that time, had said that autonomy of the central bank, within the framework of the RBI Act, is an essential and accepted governance requirement. It further asserted that both the government and the central bank, in their functioning, have to be guided by public interest and the requirements of the Indian economy.
The Government in August 2016 had appointed Urjit Patel as the new Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor. Immediately before his appointment, he was serving as the Deputy RBI chief.
[source_without_link]ANI[/source_without_link]