Urjit Patel’s new book Overdraft—Saving the Indian Saver starts on a very lyrical note: “I have been in the news; while it lasted, the contretemps made good theatre. It ended when I stepped down. The theatre of eminences has been going on for centuries and will continue for many more; eventually, everyone is forgotten.”
Patel was the governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) between September 2016 and December 2018. Before that he was a deputy governor between January 2013 and September 2016.

If ever Patel gets around to the idea of writing fiction or memoir-nonfiction, commissioning editors from publishing houses will line up to buy the rights to that book. And that might very well make sure that Patel may not be forgotten, at least not immediately. Famous writers have a much longer-shelf life than ex-central bank governors, at least as a writer I would like to believe that.  

But that’s enough about Patel and what he can possibly write. Let’s talk about what Patel has already written.  

Overdraft is an angry and a very cynical book, which ends in total hopelessness. This, in an era where the social media erupts when it smells anything cynical and demands solutions to everything at the drop of a hat. “We know enough of about the problems, give us the solutions.”
Of course, this latent need for solutions to everything stems from years of learning by rote and writing exams where every question has a right or a wrong answer; basically a solution. If exams can have solutions why can’t public policy and economics?

Only if it was as simple as that.

So what’s the main problem that Patel talks about in the book? Like a good economist who likes to talk in code, he calls the problem as banking sector-fiscalization. Before you start breaking you read wondering what does that actually mean, allow me to explain.