The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved the appointment of Michael Debabrata Patra as a Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for a three-year tenure. Patra has replaced Viral Acharya, who quit the post last July.

Prior to this elevation, Patra was an Executive Director at the RBI, overseeing four departments — Department of Economic and Policy Research, Department of Statistics and Information Management, Monetary Policy Department and New Frontiers Unit. He is also part of the rate-setting six-member Monetary Policy Committee (MPC).

The Centre has filled the fourth Deputy Governor’s post almost five months after Acharya quit the position citing unavoidable personal circumstances. Acharya, who had joined the RBI in January 2017, quit six months before his term was to end.

Patra, who has a PhD in Economics from IIT-Bombay, is a career central banker. His MPC statements indicate he is balanced in his views on helping the economy navigate the growth-inflation conundrum.

At the last MPC meeting, he said: “The configuration of macroeconomic and financial conditions facing the MPC in this meeting exerts conflicting pulls. Arguably, the slump in real GDP growth warrants accommodative monetary policy actions and stance, whereas the upturn in headline inflation for the third month in succession after a quiescent phase of nine months calls for an opposite response or at least status quo until there is ground to infer that the food price spirals that are driving it are on the ebb.”

While voting for status quo in the last meeting, Patra emphasised that it is important to note that headroom is available to act and arrest any further weakening of growth impulses. With this objective , he also voted for maintaining the accommodative monetary policy stance.

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