The government has appointed Michael Patra as the Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of India to fill the position vacated by Viral Acharya.

Patra, a member and executive director of the RBI’s Monetary Policy Committee, will be the fourth deputy governor of the central bank.

Sajjid Chinoy, chief India economist, JPMorgan, said, "This is a fantastic decision by the government and the central bank. Michael as Deputy Governor brings many years of experience, vast research that he has written about on all of these topics and therefore it is good to have Michael in that position to navigate what will be a difficult few months for the RBI."

Patra is expected to takeover over the monetary policy portfolio, which was previously managed by Acharya.

The Deputy Governor typically handles both monetary policy, very important member of the monetary policy committee, but typically also oversees the research of the central bank, said Chinoy.

Chinoy further added, "The RBI has a very strong research unit and I think this is time where some of that research will have to be leveraged to answer some of these tricky questions that central banks around the world including India is currently facing.

Acharya had resigned in July 2019, six months before the scheduled end of his term, citing “unavoidable personal reasons”.

First Published:Jan 14, 2020 11:41 AM IST