Ex-RBI Governor Urjit Patel Appointed AIIB Vice President

Former Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor Urjit Patel has been appointed as a vice president of the Beijing-based multilateral funding institution Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), according to sources in the bank on Sunday.

India is a founding member of AIIB with the second highest voting share after China. It is headed by former Chinese vice minister for finance Jin Liqun.

Mr Patel, 58, will be one of the five Vice Presidents of the AIIB with a three-year tenure. He is expected to take over his posting next month.

He will succeed outgoing Vice President D J Pandian, who is in charge of sovereign and non-sovereign lending of the AIIB in South Asia, the Pacific Islands and South-East Asia, AIIB sources told PTI.

Mr Pandian, who has previously served as the chief secretary of Gujarat, is set to return to India later this month.

Mr Patel had taken over as the 24th Governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) succeeding Raghuram Rajan on September 5, 2016.

He resigned in December, 2018 "on account of personal reasons”, saying “I have decided to step down from my current position effective immediately".

Prior to taking over on September 6, 2016, he was a deputy governor overseeing the monetary policy department at the RBI under Mr Rajan and was known as his “inflation-warrior”.

Mr Patel has previously worked with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Boston Consulting Group and Reliance Industries among other organisations.

His posting to AIIB is regarded as significant as India has emerged as its biggest beneficiary by obtaining $6.7 billion funding for 28 projects, Mr Pandian said in his farewell luncheon interaction on Saturday.

Also, the AIIB along with the Asian Development (ADB) is processing a $2 billion loan for India to purchase COVID-19 vaccines.

Of the $2 billion loan, the Manila-based ADB is expected to finance $1.5 billion and AIIB is considering providing $500 million.