Raghuram Rajan appointed honorary economic advisor to the Prime Minister

Raghuram Rajan, professor of economics at the University of Chicago, was on 3rd November 2008 named honorary economic advisor to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Rajan, a former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), will hold the rank of secretary, Government of India.

He was earlier the chairman of a high-powered committee the Prime Minister set up on financial reforms, that was tasked to frame a series of recommendations to make India a financial powerhouse over the next five years.

Rajan secured a doctorate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1991 after a master's in business administration from the Indian Institute of Management at Ahmedabad and a bachellor's degree in electrical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology in New Delhi.

He was also a visiting professor of finance at the Kellogg School, Northwestern University, and Fischer Black visiting professor at MIT's Sloan School of Management.

The financial crisis has exacerbated a global downturn that was expected earlier but is now likely to be more severe and prolonged,” Singh told chief executive officers in New Delhi on 3rd November 2008. “A crisis of this magnitude was bound to affect our economy and it has” he said.

The appointment of Raghuram G Rajan as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s Honorary Economic Adviser assumes significance at a time when the Government and the Reserve Bank of India are trying to fight the slowdown. Due to his presence, reform progress in the financial sector may take place at a faster rate



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