Services :

He served as Director of the London School of Economics, making him the first person of Indian origin to
head a higher education institute in the United Kingdom. He also served as Chairperson of the Board of
Governors from 1996 to 2001 at Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad. He also well known for his
formidable intellectual powers in the select company of central bankers and economic statesmen such as the
"Committee of the Thirty" set up by the former German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt.

He also served as Deputy Administrator at United Nations Development Programme headquarters

in New York.

He Served As 9th Director of the London School of Economics and Political Science, In office 1984–1990.

Preceded by Ralf Dahrendorf And Succeeded by John Ashworth. He also Served As 14th Governor of Reserve

Bank of India. In office 1 December,1977 –15 September,1982. Preceded by M. Narasimham and Succeeded by

Manmohan Singh.He Was Deputy Administrator of United Nations Development Programme In office 1972–

1977. And He Was 2nd Chief Economic Advisor to the Government of India In office 1965–1967,

In office 1961–1963.

Education :
I.G.Patel stood first in the Matriculation examination and established a record score that was never beaten. He

then came top in his BA at the University of Bombay. He later earned Doctor of Philosophy in economics

from King's College at University of Cambridge with a scholarship from the Gaekwads of Baroda. His tutor Austin

Robinson regarded him as his best tutee over his entire tenure as fellow of King's.
Awards :
He Was Awarded By India’s 2nd Highest Civilian Award Of the Republic Of Inida , PADMA VIBHUSHAN In

1991 For his furthering of the field of economic science.

Civil Service :
He was a member of the Indian Economic Service and served in Government of India. He held the rank
and post of Special Secretary in the Ministry of Finance and later Secretary to Government of India (Economic
Affairs) in the Ministry of Finance. He worked with four Indian PMs — Jawaharlal Nehru, Ravi Shastri, Indira
Gandhi and Morarji Desai.

Academic career :-
Patel returned to India and joined Baroda college as Professor of Economics and as the Principal in
1949. Eduard Bernstein later his mentor, invited him to join the Research Department of the International
Monetary Fund in 1950. After five years there, Patel came back to Delhi as Economic Adviser to the Ministry of
Finance in 1954 and spent the next 18 years in one or other top capacity in the Government of India.

In 1972 he became the Deputy Administrator of the UN Development Programme for five years,
returning only to take up the position of the Governor of the Reserve Bank of India. It was during this period
marked by turbulence in the foreign exchange markets that Patel's formidable intellectual powers came into use
in sessions of the Bank for International Settlements. In 1982 he was appointed Director of the Indian Institute
of Management, Ahmedabad, which he helped launch on a trajectory to become the best management school
in India.

But again Patel was picked up to serve abroad. In 1984, he was chosen to be the Director of LSE, where
he improved the school's finances and added several properties to its portfolio, as well as securing the freehold
of the school's Old Building in Houghton Street. He had to handle student protest about LSE's investments in
South Africa and their support of Winston Silcott, who had been convicted of the murder of a police officer in
the Broadwater Farm riots in Tottenham. Patel handled both the situations with tact and firmness but also with
a sympathetic understanding of students' concerns about racism. His initiatives, too, in setting up an innovative
inter-departmental forum bore fruit in the Interdisciplinary Management Institute and the Development Studies
Institute.
RBI Governor :-

The Indian Rupee notes of 1000, 5000 and 10,000 denomination and the gold auctions were
demonetized during his tenure (he later featured on a special commemorative 1000 rupee note). However, the
1000 notes had to be reintroduced later.

Noted economist Indraprasad Gordhanbhai Patel, the first Gujarati to head the Reserve Bank of India, is
better known for his caustic remarks against the demonetisation decision of the Morarji Desai government.It is
said that Patel had told then PM Desai that demonetisation would not work.

In later life, he taught at the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, Vadodara. and in 1991 Patel was
requested by then Prime Minister P. V. Narasimha Rao to assume the responsibility of the finance minister of
India, but this offer was declined by him. He was bestowed the Padma Vibhushan award in 1991 for his
furthering of the field of economic science. Indraprasad Gordhanbhai Patel was known as Baba 'IG' from his
childhood days in Vadodara, then the capital of the princely state ruled by the Gaekwads of Baroda, where he
was born. The post of I.G. Patel Professor of Economics and Government at the London School of
Economics was created in his honour; it is currently held by Nicholas Stern.

Personal life :-
He married Anuradha Dasgupta, daughter of renowned professor of economics Amiya Kumar Dasgupta – and

sister of renowned economist Sir Partha Dasgupta. Patel was appointed the principal of Indian Institute of
Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A) in 1982. He played a significant role in turning IIM-A into a world-class B-school it
is today.

In 1984, Patel became the director of the prestigious London School of Economics (LSE) and became the first Indian
to head any educational institution in the United Kingdom. He wrote the book, Glimpses of Indian Economic Policy:
An Insider’s View (2002) on his episode with the Indian economy.

He was awarded the Padma Vibhushan in 1991 for his contributions to the field of economics. Patel died in New York
at the age of 80, on July 17, 2005.

Tenure at finance ministry

In 1954, he returned to India to work as an adviser to the then finance minister C.D. Deshmukh. For the next two
decades, Patel would become one of the key persons in the administration. He was one of the architects of the first
few five-year plans, besides economic policies.  He worked with four PMs – Jawaharlal Nehru, Lal Bahadur Shastri,
Indira Gandhi, and Moraji Desai.

Economist Deepak Lal wrote that Patel tried to strike a balance between the planning commission members toeing
the socialist line of the erstwhile Soviet Union and those in the finance ministry who were “concerned with the
inflationary impact of the planners’ emphasis on heavy industry”.

When Nehru died in 1964, Patel wrote on Economic and Political Weekly magazine about ‘The Socialist legacy’ that
he left behind.

In 1969, when Indira Gandhi took over the finance portfolio from Moraji Desai, it was the then secretary, economic
affairs I.G. Patel who helped her comprehend the economic problems of the country.

In fact, he wrote the 1969 budget speech for Mrs Gandhi. During the 1971 war when Gandhi was skeptical about
whether India can handle the situation if America went with Pakistan, Patel, the then principal secretary in the finance
ministry, was believed to have told Mrs Gandhi that India could survive for five to six months with the thousand crore
foreign exchange reserves and foodgrain in granaries.