New Delhi: The government has approved the appointment of former Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Urjit Patel as Executive Director (ED) at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a term of three years.
Patel will succeed K V Subramanian, whose tenure was curtailed six months before completion, with his services ending on April 30, 2025. The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet cleared Patel’s appointment, effective from the date he assumes charge or until further orders, according to a government order issued on August 28, 2025.
The IMF Executive Board comprises 25 members representing individual countries or constituencies. India shares its seat with Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Bhutan.
Before this appointment, Patel was Vice President for Investment Operations (Region 1) at the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), a position he left in January 2024 citing family health reasons.
Patel, who became the 24th Governor of the RBI in 2016, resigned in December 2018 following differences with the government over the transfer of the central bank’s surplus reserves. Earlier, as Deputy Governor of the RBI, he oversaw monetary policy, research, statistics, deposit insurance, communications, and RTI.
Born in 1963, Patel has also served as a consultant to the Finance Ministry (1998–2001) and held positions in both public and private institutions, including Reliance Industries, IDFC Ltd, MCX Ltd, and Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation.
An alumnus of the London School of Economics, he completed his MPhil at Oxford University in 1986 and earned a PhD in Economics from Yale University in 1990. He then worked at the IMF (1990–1995), covering desks for the US, India, the Bahamas, and Myanmar.
