Raghuram Rajan - India had lost a generation of economists

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Raghuram Rajan - India had lost a generation of economists

by confuzzled dude Tue Aug 18, 2015 8:34 pm

From the ’70s through the ’90s, bright, relatively young talent trained abroad joined the government at mid-rung posts in several economic ministries. The political leadership welcomed them, as did the more competent and less insecure bureaucrats at the top, including at the PMO. Over a decade or more of being part of policy making in the Indian context, many of them grew into their jobs, and were well positioned to take on major assignments in the government and the RBI.

Manmohan Singh, for instance, was teaching at the Delhi School of Economics in May 1971 when he was invited to be economic advisor in the Ministry of Foreign Trade, which was then headed by L N Mishra. P N Dhar, a professor at Delhi’s Institute of Economic Growth, had then already joined the PMO as advisor on the invitation of P N Haksar, the influential principal secretary to the prime minister.

Singh soon succeeded Ashok Mitra as chief economic advisor at the Finance Ministry. Another famous economist, I G Patel, was heading the Department of Economic Affairs then.
Towards the end of that decade, Singh was to sound out Montek Singh Ahluwalia, who was then with the World Bank and keen on returning to the country, on an opening in the Ministry of Finance. The UPSC selected Ahluwalia, exempting him from a personal interview after checking his credentials.

Later, in 1986, when he was in the Planning Commission, Singh overcame bureaucratic resistance to bring in Arvind Virmani, who was 36 then, Rakesh Mohan, 35, and Jairam Ramesh, 32, all in the rank of joint secretaries, saying that he needed good people. Jairam, who started with the Advisory Board on Energy, and subsequently at the Ministry of Industry and the Planning Commission, ultimately moved to the PMO.

And if, as Rajan says, we need a lot of economists in some of India’s big cities to formulate sensible policies, it would be enlightening to know what one top official once told a senior UPA politician. “Tell me,” he said, “with so many economists in the government you worked with, why is the economy in such a bad shape?” This was days after the NDA government took over.

http://indianexpress.com/article/explained/outside-talent-in-the-making-of-indias-economic-policy-successes/

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Raghuram Rajan - India had lost a generation of economists

Raghuram Rajan - India had lost a generation of economists