Raghuram Rajan

@Advisor, Timeline and Childhood

Raghuram Rajan is a famous economist from India and the former Governor of RBI

Feb 3, 1963

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Biography

Personal Details

  • Birthday: February 3, 1963
  • Nationality: Indian
  • Famous: Advisor, Massachusetts Institute Of Technology, Intellectuals & Academics, Economists
  • Spouses: Radhika Rajan
  • Siblings: Jayashree Rajan, Mukund Rajan, Srinivas Rajan
  • Known as: Raghuram Govind Rajan
  • Universities:
    • Massachusetts Institute Of Technology (MIT)
    • Massachusetts Institute of Technology
    • Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad
    • Indian Institute of Technology Delhi
    • Delhi Public School
    • R. K. Puram
    • MIT Sloan School of Management

Raghuram Rajan born at

Bhopal

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Birth Place

Rajan exchanged the nuptial vows with Radhika Puri, whom he met at IIM-A; the couple has two children. Radhika is a teacher of law at ‘University of Chicago Law School’.

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Personal Life

The economist is also an avid sports and quiz fan and even took part in the ‘Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon 2015’, among others.

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Personal Life

Raghuram Govind Rajan is the son of former intelligence officer R. Govindarajan and his wife. The third child in the family, he was born on February 3, 1963 in the Bhopal city of Madhya Pradesh, India.

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Childhood & Early Life

He completed his schooling from ‘Delhi Public School R. K. Puram’ and then went on to ‘Indian Institute of Technology’, Delhi. He was presented with the ‘Director’s Gold Medal’ upon completion of his graduation in electrical engineering from the Ivy League institution, in 1985.

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Childhood & Early Life

Raghuram then went on to study at the coveted ‘Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad’. In 1987, he completed his Post Graduate Diploma in Business Administration from the celebrated management school with flying colours and earned the distinction of winning the Gold Medal.

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Childhood & Early Life

Pursuing his Ph.D. overseas, at the ‘MIT Sloan School of Management’, he successfully defended his thesis ‘Essays on Banking’ to receive a doctoral degree in Management in 1991.

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Childhood & Early Life

Rajan embarked on an academic career as an assistant professor at the ‘Booth School of Business’ which is affiliated with the ‘University of Chicago’. During his tenure he was invited to deliver guest lectures at many reputed institutions such as the ‘Stockholm School of Economics’ and ‘Kellogg School’.

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Career

His prowess as an economist was proved when he was appointed as the IMF Economic Counsellor and Director of Research during 2003-2006. Also in 2003, he penned the book ‘Saving Capitalism from the Capitalists: Unleashing the Power of Financial Markets to Create Wealth and Spread Opportunity’ in collaboration with Luigi Zingales.

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Career

Rajan put forth his analysis of the global economies in 2005 in a paper titled ‘Has Financial Development Made the World Riskier?’ The paper attracted much criticism at the time but the eventual downturn in the international markets made many concur with his views.

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Career

Rajan then returned to teaching in 2007 for a short while before he was offered the position of an honorary economic adviser by the then Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh, in November the following year. He was at the helm of financial reforms committee formed by Indian Government’s Planning Commission.

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Career

His article on minimizing the boom-bust financial cycles, which occur as a result of financial liberalization, appeared in the ‘The Economist’, in 2009.

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Career

Rajan has made immense contribution to the field of economics, the greatest being his prediction of the economic turmoil in the US. Though he was ridiculed as a ‘Luddite’ initially but the ensuing economic crisis in the US and then Europe during 2008-2012, cemented his position among some of the greatest economists of our times.

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Major Works

Rajan's three year tenure as RBI Governor is known for bringing the bleeding rupee back to strength and for battering down the inflation fangs to 6 per cent from double-digit levels. He demitted the office of the Governor of RBI on 4 September 2016.

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Major Works