After RBI, Raghuram Rajan to work for Bank of England?

Former governor of the Reserve Bank of India, Raghuram Rajan as been named as one of the contenders for the top job of the UK’s central bank. The leading Financial daily, Financial Times has named Raghuram Rajan as someone who might replace Mark Carney, he current governor of Bank of England.

“Impeccable international economics and central banking experience. Significant achievements at the Reserve Bank of India,” Financial Times wrote. Howeber, the publication also stated that if given the job, the former RBI governor might not accept it.

"The government, which selects the governor and deputy governors of the central bank, has not ruled out another non-British appointment and is seeking a figure who can make an impact on the global stage as the UK prepares for Brexit", the newspaper said.

It is also to be noted that Raghuram Rajan was the first non-western and the youngest at 40 to become the chief economist at the International Monetary Fund.

The article further mentioned that that ‘attracting Rajan, the highly respected Chicago-based economist and former Reserve Bank of India governor, would be a coup’.

At present, Raghuram Rajan is back in Chicago, and is now the Katherine Dusak Miller Distinguished Service Professor of Finance at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Earlier this week, giving the 2018 Albert H Gordon Lecture on April 11 at the Harvard Kennedy School on the topic Leverage, Financial Crises, and Policies to Raise Economic Growth', Raghuram Rajan said, India "pales" in comparison to China, which is about five times India's size while the per capita is about the same as populations in both countries are approaching each other.

"By any criteria, except comparisons to China, India is a very impressive story, he said, pointing to the seven per cent GDP growth over the last 25 years.On what India has not done that China has, Rajan said India has not built out infrastructure and construction. Rajan said an enormous part of Chinese growth and manufacturing growth has been much better logistics, access to ports and roads, something "which India doesn't have". Rajan cited an hypothetical example of building a six-lane highway in India, saying there will be a pushback for such a project. He said it is difficult to build infrastructure in India as one would be running over so many people's land.