New Delhi, January 14: The central government appointed Michael Debabrata Patra as the fourth deputy governor of the apex bank on Tuesday. He is appointed for the post, for a period of three years. Previously, he was working as an executive director of the RBI. Patra will take charge of the position of Viral Achraya, the position that was lying vacant since Acharya resigned in June last year.
Patra joined the RBI in 1985. He has earned a Ph.D. in Economics from the Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai. His Ph.D. thesis was entitled “The Role of Invisibles in India’s Balance of Payments: A Structural Approach”.
According to the RBI norms, the central bank can have maximum of four deputy governors. Currently, the RBI is having three deputy governors -NS Vishwanathan, BP Kanungo and MK Jain. Patra will be the fourth among the deputy governors. Shaktikanta Das is the governor of RBI.
Viral Acharya resigned six months before ending of his tenure. He attributed personal reasons for suddenly resigning from this post but the speculations were rife that it was due to the constant intervention of the government in the RBI’s internal matters and the spat that was ongoing over the issue of passing the surplus reserves to the center.