Nobody can have second thoughts about former Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Raghuram Rajan’s credibility as an influential economist – both as a theorist and as one who implemented many policies at the Indian Central bank. Rajan, who served as RBI governor from September 2013 to August 2016, has even been featured on this year’s list of probables for Nobel Prize in Economics.
Now, Rajan has caught American eyes as well. Barron’s, an American weekly newspaper in an article has said that Rajan should be the ideal pick to head the Federal Reserve, the US Central Bank – current incumbent of the high post is Janet Yellen. “Nowhere on the short list of potential candidates to lead the Federal Reserve is the current star among the world’s central bankers—someone who oversaw a sharp drop in inflation, the stabilization of a currency, and a 50% jump in stock prices,” said Barron’s article. This comes at a time when US President Donald Trump is set to announce his pick for the US central bank on Thursday.
After serving as the RBI governor from September 2013-2016, Rajan joined the Booth School at the University of Chicago, where he taught until 2003. Rajan also became the youngest chief economist and was appointed as the director of research at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the first non-Westerner to hold the post. Rajan had previously famously predicted the 2008 global meltdown that had created one of the greatest ever economic crisis.