If there were one man that can make the world of finance look badass AF, if there were one man who could make a ‘James Bond’ analogy fit in an economist’s life, it was this one. Raghuram Rajan needs no introduction, but he sure deserves it. The bold and unfaltering decisions that most financiers shy away from characterise Rajan’s meteoric rise from an IIT graduate to one of the world’s top names in modern economics.
Those of you who only know him as a ‘finance guy’, let us tell you just how he isn’t. He’s The Finance Guy. And there is no dearth of reasons why.
1. A scholar and an academic, Raghuram Rajan has contributed endlessly to the world of financial academia, and been recognised for it.
He served as a professor in international corporate finance to MBA students, and of theory of financial decisions for doctoral students at the University of Chicago. Among the many awards he’s received, Rajan won the inaugural Fischer Black Prize – awarded every two years to a financial economist younger than 40 who has made the most significant contribution to the world of finance.
His book Fault Lines: How Hidden Fractures Still Threaten the World Economy was named the Financial Times – Goldman Sachs’ best business book of the year.
2. This monetary economist genius challenged The US Federal Reserve in 2005 and despite being dismissed as ‘misguided’ at the time, he proved the Gods of central banking wrong in 2008.
At the 2005 Federal Reserve annual conference, he warned Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and his team of academics of the consequences of certain economical decisions that were being made, and was proven to be right in the 2008 economic crisis.
3. Before being appointed as the Governor of the RBI in 2013, he also served as the Chief Economic Advisor to India’s Ministry of Finance in 2012-13.
Not only that, the man may well bag a second term as the Governor of India’s central bank. The man has been indispensable to the Indian economy for a few years now. There has, in fact, been much speculation about just what a key role Rajan has played so far in the Indian economy and whether he could be our next Finance Minister.
4. And for good reason. As RBI Governor, just on the first day, Rajan caused a 2.1% rise in the value of the rupee against the dollar.
His focus on inflation brought the problem down from 9.8% to 3.78% – the lowest it had ever been since the 1990s. The revolutionary changes he has caused had the whole country, nay, world, sit up and take note.
5. Rajan currently serves as the only Indian vice-chairman the Bank for International Settlements has ever had.
A true force to be reckoned with, Rajan has made India proud everywhere he’s gone. He’s a member of other prestigious world organisations such as American Association of Arts and Sciences and Group of Thirty – an international body of leading financiers and academics from the world of economics and finance.
As if that weren’t enough, Rajan has also served as the first Indian President of the American Finance Association in 2011.
6. And this humble Indian may well be the man driving the world’s economic fate.
Rajan was the chief economist at the International Monetary Fund from 2003 to 2007 – the youngest to occupy the position – and is all set to take over as head of the organisation later this year.
So don’t let anybody tell you finance isn’t a game of badassery. People like Raghuram Rajan are living proof that this ain’t for the faint-hearted.
