Raghuram Rajan Biography 
Raghuram Govind Rajan (born 3 February 1963) is an Indian economist who is the Katherine Dusak Miller Distinguished Service Professor of Finance at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. He was the 23rd Governor of the Reserve Bank of India between September 2013 and September 2016. He took the charge on 4 September 2013 and one of the most talked personalities since then. The whole nation was eagerly waiting for his reforms and steps as Governor of RBI and believes that he can do a lot to improve the economic status of the nation, post rupee-dollar depreciation. Rajan was the chief economic adviser to India's Ministry of Finance till he took the charge of Governer of RBI from Duvvuri Subbarao. He was the chief economist at the International Monetary Fund from 2003 to 2007 and now on leave as a professor of graduate business school at the University of Chicago.
Raghuram Rajan was born on 3rd February, 1963 in Bhopal to a Tamil Indian Foreign Service officer. His primary schooling was done at many schools in abroad and he returned back to India in 1974. He completed his schooling from Delhi Public School RK Puram. Degree in electrical engineering in 1985 from Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi and Post Graduate Diploma in Business Administration from the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad in 1987 are his educational qualifications. He has received Director's Gold Medal for best all-round achievement at IIT Delhi and gold medal at IIM Ahmedabad. Later he completed PhD from MIT in 1991.
Rajan joined the Booth School of Business at the University of Chicago where he was appointed as te youngest-ever Economic Counselor and Director of Research at IMF. In 2003, he was also the inaugural recipient of the Fischer Black Prize. He was below 40 when he received this award. He was also awarded with 5th Deutsche Bank Prize in Financial Economics by CFS for his highly influential contributions to financial economics.
In 2005, Rajan delivered a controversial paper that was critical of the financial sector; but he received negative responses. His warnings were judged “misguided” and Rajan was called a "luddite". However, following the 2008 economic crisis, Rajan's views came to be seen as prescient. In November 2008, Indian Prime Minister appointed him as an honorary economic adviser. Same year a high-level committee headed by Rajan submitted its final report to the Planning Commission. In 2010 and 2012, he was featured on ‘Foreign Policy’ magazine's FP Top 100 Global Thinkers.
In interviews in September 2017, Rajan said the Government of India had consulted the Reserve Bank of India, during his Governorship, on the issue of demonetization but never asked to take a decision. He said the RBI was against the move and warned the government of the potential negative effects.
Published: N/A
Updated: September 25, 2017
