Taking a dig at those writing his “obituaries”, Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan on Wednesday said he will be around “a lot in India” even after leaving the central bank and should not be written off as yet.
The comments come within days of Mr Rajan unexpectedly announcing that he will step down after his current three-year tenure at the RBI ends on September 4.
“I feel like in the last few days I have read a lot of my obituaries and I’m still here. I’m still here for two-and-half months in this job. After that I’m going to still be around somewhere in the world, probably a lot in India, so don’t write me off,” Mr Rajan said.
During a question-and-answer session, he further said, “The only thing I will say is that… I read these obituaries in the papers, I am still alive. I will leave this office in September, but I certainly will be coming in and out of the country on numerous occasions.“
“I will be reading and writing and I will be speaking at fora like this,” said Mr Rajan, who has been hailed as a ‘rockstar’ central banker for containing inflation and checking rupee volatility despite global headwinds.
Mr Rajan, the former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) who is credited for predicting the 2008 global financial crisis, made this observation at the start of his speech at an interactive industry meet organised by business chamber Assocham.
Amid political attacks and criticism from some quarters of the Bharatiya Janata Party for not lowering interest rates enough to boost economy, Mr Rajan had on Saturday announced that he would return to academics after his term ends, putting at rest all speculation over his continuance.
(Feature image source: Reuters