gfiles magazine

August 28, 2013

Raghuram Rajan: PM's first choice for RBI Governor

COVER STORY
banking rbi chief
Raghuram Rajan: PM's first choice for RBI Governor

By Neeraj Mahajan

A

If you have the Prime Minister himself backing you everything else is cake-walk. Fifty year old Raghuram G. Rajan's appointment as the next Governor of Reserve Bank of India for a period of three years hardly comes as a surprise. As the PM's first choice, the Chief Economic Advisor's selection as the 23rd Governor of RBI was a foregone conclusion

The dice was heavily loaded in favor of Raghuram Rajan a lead advisor in the finance ministry who made a name for himself by predicting the global financial crisis. He was essentially an appointee of the Prime Minister. It might be recalled that in November 2008, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had appointed Rajan as honorary economic advisor. Once again Manmohan Singh insisted on Rajan's selection as Chief Economic Advisor last year, when Kaushik Basu retired. This swung the tide in his favor and the Appointments Committee of Cabinet (ACC) simply echoed the PMs Choice. There were as many as 18 equally strong contenders for the post of Chief Economic Advisor advertised by the finance ministry in April 2012 and 8-9 interviews were conducted. The shortlisted candidates included IDFC managing director & CEO Rajiv Lall and Assistant secretary-general to United Nations Read more..

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