NEW DELHI (Reuters) - The Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) Governor Urjit Patel should not have resigned "at a time when most of the controversial issues have been discussed and decided", an RBI board member told Reuters on Monday.
Patel cited "personal reasons" for his resignation, but it came after Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government put pressure on the RBI to ease regulatory curbs on some banks, increase liquidity and relax capital norms as it faces a slowing economy ahead of general elections due by May.
The RBI and the government still need to address liquidity crunch faced by small businesses, one of RBI's board members, Sachin Chaturvedi, told Reuters.
Chaturvedi said he "looked forward" to holding discussions during the Dec. 14 board meeting, which he said could now be chaired by senior most deputy governor of the central bank, N.S. Vishwanathan.
(Reporting by Manoj Kumar; Writing by Aditya Kalra; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)