Economics and Public Policy

Professor Chakravarthi Rangarajan has joined Ahmedabad University as Distinguished University Professor in March 2017 and has delivered a lecture titled ‘Changing Contours of Globalization’.

Prof. Rangarajan is a leading economist of India who has played a key role both as an academic and a policy maker. He has held several important positions which include Governor of Reserve Bank of India and Governor of Andhra Pradesh.

Prof. Rangarajan was till May 2014 Chairman, Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister in the rank of Cabinet Minister, a position he has held since January, 2005, except during 2008-09 when he was a Member of Parliament (RajyaSabha).

Prior to this, he was Chairman of the Twelfth Finance Commission, a constitutional commission set up every five years to determine the sharing of tax revenues between the central and the state governments.

Prof. Rangarajan was Governor of the Reserve Bank of India during 1992-1997 at a time when India embarked on wide-ranging economic reforms which fundamentally altered the structure of the Indian economy. He was actively involved in the design and implementationof the reform agenda.

Prof. Rangarajan obtained his PhD from the University of Pennsylvania. In the United States, he taught at the WhartonSchool of Finance & Commerce, University of Pennsylvania and the Graduate School of Business Administration, New York University. In India, he taught at Loyola College, Madras, University of Rajasthan, the Indian Statistical Institute, New Delhi, and for well over a decade and a half, at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.

He was President of the Indian Economic Association in 1988 and President of the Indian Econometric Society in 1994. He is the author of several books on Indian Economy.

Prof. Rangarajan was recipient of several prestigious awards. In recognition of his distinguished service to the country, Government of India honoured him with Padma Vibhusan in 2002 (Second Highest Civilian Award).