Arvind Subramanian

Teachers and Friends Recall CEA’s Fun-Filled Student Days @ IIM Ahmedabad !!!

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Teachers and friends of India’s new Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian remember how his friends and he once bought a second-hand car from the money they earned during summer assignments while studying at the Indian Institute of Management (IIM)-Ahmedabad.

Arvind Subramanian

 

“I remember some of the students, including Arvind Subramanian, Ivan Menezes (now, chief executive of Diageo) and Lalit Bhojwani (of Origin Consultants), had bought a second-hand car out of the money they earned for their summer assignments,” said Nayan Parikh, president, IIM-A Alumni Association, and Subramanian’s batchmate. “Often, the car would not start and other students would be called to push it.”

Subramanian was a student at the premier management institute from 1979 to 1981, pursuing a post-graduate programme. He was taught by such luminaries as former Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor C Rangarajan and former IIM-A director Bakul Dholakia. They all remember Subramanian as a bright student, interested in research, with a deep liking for economics and finance. They are also confident that the country’s economy is now in safe hands.

“This is a positive development for the IIM-A fraternity. Raghuram Rajan as RBI governor and now Arvind Subramanian as chief economic advisor are going to make significant contribution to the Indian economy,” said Dholakia, now the director-general of International Management Institute.

“A highly established and talented faculty member like Rangarajan became the RBI Governor, as did Rajan. Now, Subramanian is the CEA. IIM-Ahmedabad is making a significant contribution in the building of the Indian economy.”

Remembering Subramanian as a “bright student”, Dholakia said, “He was deeply interested in economics and finance. We had a compulsory course on macroeconomics called Economic Environment and Policy, which Rangarajan and I used to teach.” Dholakia also remembers Subramanian had an inclination for research and was not interested in pursuing a corporate career.

Another faculty who remembers the new CEA from when he was a student is Abhinandan Jain. “He was down-to-earth and understated.”

Source::::www.business-standard.com

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Meet Mr. Arvind Subramanian … Chief Economic Adviser to Govt. Of India…

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After his candidacy first emerged in August, US based economist Arvind Subramanian has finally been selected as chief economic adviser by the Indian government.

 

This announcement came at a newsconference in New Delhi where Subramanian was present. He is a development economist who worked closely with Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Raghuram Rajan when both were at the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

According to analysts, one of the prime factors that tipped scales in favour of Arvind Subramanian was his proximity to RBI governor Raghuram Rajan. Narendra Modi personally handpicked Arvind to be his chief economic adviser.

Confirming his appointment in an impromptu news conference outside the Finance Ministry, Mr Subramanian said: “It is a great honour… to serve in a government that has a mandate for reform and change.” He said macro-economic stability and creating favourable conditions for investment will be priorities.

Traditionally, the chief economic adviser is responsible for producing the annual Economic Survey – a document on the state of economy that underpins the drafting of the Budget – and a mid-year economic update that is presented to Parliament.

Recently, Mr Subramanian criticised the Indian government’s decision to derail a WTO deal struck last year to streamline trade procedures by tying it to a separate controversy over food subsidies.

He also criticised Mr Jaitley’s maiden budget in July for being too optimistic in its revenue forecasts.

Mr Subramanian was educated in India and Britain and went on to serve at the IMF and at the forerunner to the World Trade Organization, before taking senior academic posts at Harvard and Johns Hopkins universities in the United States.

In 2011, Foreign Policy magazine has named him as one of the world’s top 100 global thinkers. He obtained his undergraduate degree from St. Stephens College, Delhi; his MBA from the Indian Institute of Management at Ahmedabad, India; and his M.Phil and D.Phil from the University of Oxford, UK.

Below is a small bio of Arvind Subramanian (Courtesy- Peterson Institute of International economics) 

Arvind Subramanian is the Dennis Weatherstone Senior Fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics and senior fellow at the Center for Global Development. His book Eclipse: Living in the Shadow of China’s Economic Dominance was published in September 2011, and he is coauthor of Who Needs to Open the Capital Account? (2012). Foreign Policy magazine has named him as one of the world’s top 100 global thinkers in 2011.

He was assistant director in the Research Department of the International Monetary Fund. He served at the GATT (1988–92) during the Uruguay Round of trade negotiations and taught at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government (1999–2000) and at Johns Hopkins’ School for Advanced International Studies (2008–10).

He has written on growth, trade, development, institutions, aid, oil, India, Africa, and the World Trade Organization. He has published widely in academic and other journals, including the American Economic Review (Papers and Proceedings), Review of Economics and Statistics, Journal of International Economics, Journal of Monetary Economics, Journal of Public Economics, Journal of Economic Growth, Journal of Development Economics, Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Oxford Review of Economic Policy, International Monetary Fund Staff Papers, Foreign Affairs, World Economy, and Economic and Political Weekly.

He has also published or been cited in leading magazines and newspapers, including the Economist, Financial Times, Washington Post, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, and New York Review of Books. He contributes frequently to the Financial Times and is a columnist in India’s leading financial daily, Business Standard.

He advises the Indian government in different capacities, including as a member of the Finance Minister’s Expert Group on the G-20. His book India’s Turn: Understanding the Economic Transformation was published in 2008 by Oxford University Press.

With agency inputs  

Source::::www.dnaindia.com

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