Urjit Patel (born 28 October 1963) is an Indian economist, who served as the 24th Governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) from 4 September 2016 to 10 December 2018. Previously, as an RBI Deputy Governor appointed by the UPA government, he looked after monetary policy, economic research, financial markets, statistics and information management. Appointed by the NDA government, Patel succeeded Raghuram Rajan as RBI governor on 4 September 2016. He resigned from his post on 10 December 2018, being the first RBI governor to state personal reasons as a driving factor for resigning. He is the fifth RBI governor to have resigned from his post before his term ended in September 2019.