New Delhi: The much debated decision of RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan not to seek a second term in office has opened the doors for a lot of other potential candidates who could take over as India’s central banker post Rajan’s exit in September.
While the PMO is believed to be personally monitoring in the deliberations over Rajan’s successor, a survey by Bloomberg News has found that Arvind Subramanian, chief economic adviser at India’s finance ministry, is the best bet among five candidates the government is said to be considering.
Seven of 13 economists picked the Oxford-educated Subramanian out of a list unveiled on Monday to reporters in New Delhi by a finance ministry official. None of the other candidates received more than two votes, Bloomberg said in a report today.
Others on the list of possible successors include Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das and a trio of former or serving deputy central bank governors: Rakesh Mohan, Subir Gokarn and Urjit Patel.
The names of Arvind Pangariya, who heads the Niti Ayog and SBI chairperson Arundhati Bhattacharya have also been doing the rounds.
Subramanian has spent several years overseas in various roles including ones at the International Monetary Fund and as a senior fellow with Peterson Institute of International Economics.
He has also taught at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government and Johns Hopkins’ School for Advanced International Studies.
Subramanian has also differed with Rajan on the role of cutting interest rates in boosting growth and has also targetted Rajan on singular focus on consumer prices while deliberating monetary policy.
Subramanian gives input on the economy and authors the Economic Survey, an annual report card of the finance ministry. The latest version penned by him argued for monetary policy easing to boost economic growth, saying oil prices will keep costs low even though they’ll be moderately higher than last year.
