Rajan handed over the baton to Patel on September 04.
As a deputy governor, Patel was the chairman of the Expert Committee to Revise and Strengthen the Monetary Policy Framework.
"Representing India, he actively participated in steering the signing into force of the inter-governmental treaty and the Inter-Central Bank Agreement (ICBA) among the BRICS nations, which led to the establishment of the Contingent Reserve Arrangement (CRA), a swap line framework among the central banks of these countries," RBI had stated.
Patel has also served at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and was a consultant to the Ministry of Finance from 1998 to 2001. He also had other assignments in public and private sectors, including with Reliance Industries, IDFC Ltd, MCX Ltd and Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation.
He is commonly referred to as Dr Patel and has worked with several central and state government high level committees.
These include the Task Force on Direct Taxes, the High Level Expert Group for Reviewing the Civil & Defence Services Pension System, the Prime Minister's Task Force on Infrastructure, the Group of Ministers on Telecom Matters, the Committee on Civil Aviation Reforms and the Ministry of Power's Expert Group on State Electricity Boards.
He has several publications in areas of Indian macroeconomics, monetary policy, public finance, financial sector, international trade, and regulatory economics, the RBI said.
Patel has a PhD in economics from Yale University, an M Phil from University of Oxford and a BSc from the University of London.