Meet these four candidates who are contending for RBI’s top post

RBI Deputy Governor Urjit Patel is a top contender to succeed Rajan. He is an eminent economist and was the adviser at the Boston Consulting Group. He looks after monetary policy, economic policy research, etc. He was reappointed as the deputy governor in January for another three years and has RBI’s monetary policy department since 2013. Also, the changes he helped drive are considered one of the significant monetary policy reforms since 1991.

She is presently the chairperson of State Bank of India and is a favourite among investors for her management of the bank's mountain of bad debt. She also featured in Forbes list of world's 100 most powerful women. Although, it being considered to extend her tenure, it is quite possible she can become the RBI Governor. Bhattacharya took several initiatives at SBI, from general insurance to SBI Macquarie Infrastructure Fund and SBI SG Global Securities Private Ltd. She also introduced financial planning and mobile banking.

He has served the RBI for two terms as the deputy governor. Mohan was also secretary at the department of economic affairs at the finance ministry and held positions at the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Mohan was in charge of monetary policy, financial markets, economic research and statistics at the RBI.