THE MANY FACES OF RAGHURAM RAJAN
Hello everybody! Shown above are my many faces as an economist. Expressions of enthusiasm, seriousness, sarcasm and motivation are the emotions I go through as an economist. Read on to get to know me better and perhaps you can find out the reasons behind my different facial expressions! ;)
My Personal Life...
I was born on the 3rd of February 1963 to a Tamil Brahmin Iyengar family in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India. I was given the name Rhaguram Govinda Rajan which is written as ரகுராம் கோவிந்த ராஜன் in Tamil. My father was a Senior Bureaucrat in the Indian Government.
My Education...
I completed my schooling from the 7th to 12th standard in Delhi Public School, RK Puram and graduated in 1985 with a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology in Delhi in which I won Director's Gold Medal. Later on in 1987, I obtained a Post Graduate Diploma in Business Administration from the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad and was a Gold Medalist as well. 4 years later, I received a PhD in Management from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for my thesis, "Essays on Banking".
My Career...
It all started after my graduation. I first joined the Booth School of Business in the University of Chicago. From October 2003 to December 2006, I was the Chief Economist at the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Among my research interests are in corporate finance, theory of organisations, financial intermediation and regulation and economic development. So far, I co-authored "Saving Capitalism from the Capitalists" with Luigi Zingales in 2003 and then wrote "Fault Lines: How Hidden Fractures Still Threaten the World Economy", for which I was awarded the Financial Times-Goldman Sachs prize for best business book in 2010. I was appointed by the Indian Prime Minister (Dr. Manmohan Singh) as an honourary Economic advisor in November 2008. I am a member of the Group of Thirty and was the President of the American Finance Association in 2011 and am a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. On the 10th of August 2012, I was appointed as Chief Economic Advisor to the Indian Government and on the 6th of August 2013, it was announced that I was to take over as the Reserve Bank of India Governor for a term of 3 years. As of now, I am the 23rd Governor of the Reserve Bank of India.
My Love Life...
I got married to Radhika Puri who I fell in love with when we were classmates in the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad and together, we have a daughter and son.
My Contribution to Economics...
-In 2012, I proposed supply-side solutions of a long-term structural or national competitiveness nature. I expressed my view on how industrial countries should treat the ongoing economic crisis as a wake up call whereby governments should address the underlying flaws in their economies. In the United States, that would mean educating or retraining workers who are falling behind, encouraging entrepreneurship and innovation and harnessing the power of the financial sector to do good while preventing it from going off track. In southern Europe, by contrast, it means removing the regulations that protect firms and workers from competition and shrinking the government's presence in a number of areas, in the process eliminating unnecessary, unproductive jobs.
- Also, I advocated structural or supply-side reforms to improve competitiveness of the workforce to better adapt to globalization, while also supporting fiscal austerity measures like raising taxes and cutting spending. I think that austerity could slow economies in the short-run and bring significant disadvantages to certain constituencies.
Now, the next time you see one of the many faces as depicted in the image collage above, I am pretty sure you will be more familiar with it upon reading my blog page! Thank you for stopping by. :D
My Personal Life...
I was born on the 3rd of February 1963 to a Tamil Brahmin Iyengar family in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India. I was given the name Rhaguram Govinda Rajan which is written as ரகுராம் கோவிந்த ராஜன் in Tamil. My father was a Senior Bureaucrat in the Indian Government.
My Education...
I completed my schooling from the 7th to 12th standard in Delhi Public School, RK Puram and graduated in 1985 with a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology in Delhi in which I won Director's Gold Medal. Later on in 1987, I obtained a Post Graduate Diploma in Business Administration from the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad and was a Gold Medalist as well. 4 years later, I received a PhD in Management from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for my thesis, "Essays on Banking".
My Career...
It all started after my graduation. I first joined the Booth School of Business in the University of Chicago. From October 2003 to December 2006, I was the Chief Economist at the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Among my research interests are in corporate finance, theory of organisations, financial intermediation and regulation and economic development. So far, I co-authored "Saving Capitalism from the Capitalists" with Luigi Zingales in 2003 and then wrote "Fault Lines: How Hidden Fractures Still Threaten the World Economy", for which I was awarded the Financial Times-Goldman Sachs prize for best business book in 2010. I was appointed by the Indian Prime Minister (Dr. Manmohan Singh) as an honourary Economic advisor in November 2008. I am a member of the Group of Thirty and was the President of the American Finance Association in 2011 and am a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. On the 10th of August 2012, I was appointed as Chief Economic Advisor to the Indian Government and on the 6th of August 2013, it was announced that I was to take over as the Reserve Bank of India Governor for a term of 3 years. As of now, I am the 23rd Governor of the Reserve Bank of India.
My Love Life...
I got married to Radhika Puri who I fell in love with when we were classmates in the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad and together, we have a daughter and son.
My Contribution to Economics...
-In 2012, I proposed supply-side solutions of a long-term structural or national competitiveness nature. I expressed my view on how industrial countries should treat the ongoing economic crisis as a wake up call whereby governments should address the underlying flaws in their economies. In the United States, that would mean educating or retraining workers who are falling behind, encouraging entrepreneurship and innovation and harnessing the power of the financial sector to do good while preventing it from going off track. In southern Europe, by contrast, it means removing the regulations that protect firms and workers from competition and shrinking the government's presence in a number of areas, in the process eliminating unnecessary, unproductive jobs.
- Also, I advocated structural or supply-side reforms to improve competitiveness of the workforce to better adapt to globalization, while also supporting fiscal austerity measures like raising taxes and cutting spending. I think that austerity could slow economies in the short-run and bring significant disadvantages to certain constituencies.
Now, the next time you see one of the many faces as depicted in the image collage above, I am pretty sure you will be more familiar with it upon reading my blog page! Thank you for stopping by. :D