India's new central bank governor has big shoes to fill

TWENTY five years ago, I had a colleague at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Washington, DC. His name was Urjit Patel. I was delighted to see that he has just been appointed governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to succeed the incumbent, Raghuram Rajan. Investors, the business community and the markets should welcome the news.

The 52-year-old Mr Patel, educated at the London School of Economics, Oxford and Yale - where he got his doctorate - is a brilliant economist. He is also versatile, having worked on many issues besides monetary policy - among…