RBI guv keeps it simple, hires taxi to reach Kanpur
KANPUR: While a fleet of cars waited to pick ‘state guest’ Urijit Patel at Lucknow airport on Wednesday, the RBI governor chose to hire a cab instead to reach Kanpur.
Here to chair RBI central board meeting on Thursday, Patel shook hands with the RBI officials who were at the airport to receive him but declined to travel on vehicles provided to him as a state guest.
Sources said his office had even requested the RBI officials to not go overboard in welcoming him. They were advised to not send more than two officers to the airport. But a few vehicles and officers were sent to the airport.
It was also made clear that the governor would not accept any bouquets from the people, even the bank employees and officials, during their brief meeting with him.
Patel reached his hotel in Kanpur at 3 pm and did not let officials or hotel staff carry his bags to the room.
Ahead of his arrival, the four deputy governors, finance secretary and a team of 22 officials from Mumbai reached Kanpur.
The meeting of the central board would begin at 10.30am on Thursday and conclude late in the evening. Patel would then leave for Mumbai on Friday noon.
The second floor of the famous RBI stone building has been transformed to international standards for the central board meeting and monetary policy review. The biannual meeting has been held in Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata and Chennai in the past. This is the first time that other cities will host the meetings—a brain child of former governor Raghuram Rajan who was of the view that it would help the governor better understand the ground reality.
RBI Kanpur is one of the first eight offices that was made operational in 1935. The RBI was constituted as a central bank in 1934 with offices in Kanpur, Rangoon, Lahore, Karachi, Bombay, Delhi, Kolkata and Chennai.