Beijing (Metro Rail News): Former RBI governor Urjit Patel has been chosen as a vice president of the Beijing-based global lending agency AIIB. With the second-highest voting stake behind China, India is a founding member of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB). Jin Liqun, a former Chinese vice-minister of finance, is in charge.
Urjit Patel will serve as one of the AIIB’s five vice presidents for a three-year term. Next month, he is anticipated to take over his position. According to AIIB sources, he will succeed outgoing vice president D.J. Pandian, who is in charge of the AIIB’s sovereign and non-sovereign loans in South Asia, the Pacific Islands, and South-East Asia.
Pandian, who previously served as Gujarat’s chief secretary, will return to the country later this month. On September 5, 2016, Patel succeeded Raghuram Rajan as the 24th Governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
Patel stepped down in December of 2018. “I have decided to step down from my current job effective immediately” due to personal considerations. He was a deputy governor handling the monetary policy department at the RBI under Rajan and was renowned as his “inflation-warrior” until taking over on September 6, 2016.”
Patel has previously worked for organizations such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Boston Consulting Group, and Reliance Industries. Patel’s appointment to the AIIB is noteworthy since India has emerged as the organization’s largest recipient, receiving $6.7 billion in investment for 28 projects, Pandian said at his goodbye luncheon on Saturday.
In addition, the AIIB is working on a $2 billion loan for India to purchase COVID-19 vaccinations with the Asian Development Bank (ADB). The Manila-based ADB is slated to provide $1.5 billion of the $2 billion loans, while the AIIB considers giving $500 million.
The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) recently approved a loan of $356.67 million to expand Chennai’s metro rail system. It’s also considering sponsoring a slew of additional infrastructure projects to help the city of Chennai and its environs grow. The bank also financed the Bengaluru metro rail project.
In his parting speech, Pandian sought to debunk the misconception that the AIIB is a Chinese bank, particularly in India. Instead, he claimed that the bank has evolved into a multilateral institution currently the leading lender of Asian infrastructure projects. Except for the United States and Japan, he noted that most developed and developing countries joined the bank.
A readout on AIIB official website said the bank is a “multilateral development bank whose mission is financing the Infrastructure for Tomorrow—infrastructure with sustainability at its core”. “We started operations in Beijing in January 2016 and now have 105 approved members around the world.” We have a $100 billion market capitalization. We are rated Triple-A by the major international credit rating agencies. “It was also added.
