Chakravarthi Rangarajan (born 1932) is an Indian economist, a former Member of Parliament and 19th Governor of the

Reserve Bank of India The Reserve Bank of India, chiefly known as RBI, is India's central bank and regulatory body responsible for regulation of the Indian banking system. It is under the ownership of Ministry of Finance, Government of India. It is responsible for ...

. He is the former Chairman of the Prime Minister's

Economic Advisory Council Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister of India (PMEAC) is a non-constitutional, non-permanent and independent body constituted to give economic advice to the Government of India, specifically the Prime Minister. The council serves to ...

, he resigned the day the UPA lost power. He is also the Chairman of the

Madras School of Economics Madras School of Economics is an institution of higher education in economics, located in Chennai, India. Madras School of Economics was founded in 1993 as a post-graduate institution for teaching and research in economics. MSE offers ...

; former President of the

Indian Statistical Institute Indian Statistical Institute (ISI) is a higher education and research institute which is recognized as an Institute of National Importance by the 1959 act of the Indian parliament. It grew out of the Statistical Laboratory set up by Prasanta C ...

; the Founding Chairman of the

CR Rao Advanced Institute of Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science CR Rao Advanced Institute of Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science (also called AIMSCS) was founded in 2007 as an institute for basic research in statistics, computer science and mathematics. It is located on the campus of the University of ...

; former Chancellor of the

University of Hyderabad The University of Hyderabad (IAST: ''Hydarāvād visvavidyālayamu'') is a top ranking public central research university located in Hyderabad, Telangana, India. Founded in 1974, this mostly residential campus has more than 5,000 students a ...

; and a professor in

Ahmedabad University Ahmedabad University is a private, non-profit university in Gujarat, India, set up in 2009 by the Ahmedabad Education Society. It comprises three schools and seven centres with opportunities for interdisciplinary scholarship. Ahmedabad Universit ...

Early life

Rangarajan, a student of National College (

Tiruchirappalli Tiruchirappalli () ( formerly Trichinopoly in English), also called Tiruchi or Trichy, is a major tier II city in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and the administrative headquarters of Tiruchirappalli district. The city is credited with bein ...

) between 1947 and 1949, graduated from Loyola College of the

University of Madras The University of Madras (informally known as Madras University) is a public university, public State university (India), state university in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. Established in 1857, it is one of the oldest and among the most prestigiou ...

in the commerce stream (where he was a contemporary of the

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

economics professor

T N Srinivasan T. N. Srinivasan, in full Thirukodikaval Nilakanta Srinivasan (27 March 1933 – 11 November 2018), was an Indian economist who had taught and worked in the United States. He was the Emeritus Samuel C. Park, Jr. Professor of Economics at Yale Un ...

). He later received his PhD in economics from the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

in 1964. His thesis was titled "Variability of Demand Deposits".

Career

Rangarajan taught at several institutions including the

and the

Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIM Ahmedabad) is the world's number 1 business school, located in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India. The school has been accorded the status of an Institute of National Importance by Ministry of Human Resource ...

(IIM-A). He was a well known teacher of economics at IIMA for the postgraduate and the doctoral courses. His textbook on macro economics was used in business management schools. He was awarded the title of Honorary Fellow of IIM-A in 1997. He served as a Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of India from 1982 to 1991, after which he served as the Governor of the

between 22 December 1992 and 21 December 1997. He served as the

Governor of Andhra Pradesh This is a list of governors of Andhra, including Andhra State and United Andhra Pradesh, in office from 1953 to the present date. The official residence of the governor is the Raj Bhavan, situated in Vijayawada. E. S. L. Narasimhan is the lon ...

from 24 November 1997 to 3 January 2003. After demitting that office, he took charge as the chairman of the Twelfth Finance Commission. While serving as the governor of Andhra Pradesh, he received additional charges as governor of

Odisha Odisha (English: , ), formerly Orissa ( the official name until 2011), is an Indian state located in Eastern India. It is the 8th largest state by area, and the 11th largest by population. The state has the third largest population of ...

from 1998 to 1999, and as governor of

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a States and union territories of India, state in southern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of India ...

from 2001 to 2002. In 2002, the

Government of India The Government of India (ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, c ...

awarded him the

Padma Vibhushan The Padma Vibhushan ("Lotus Decoration") is the second-highest Indian honours system, civilian award of the Republic of India, after the Bharat Ratna. Instituted on 2 January 1954, the award is given for "exceptional and distinguished service" ...

, India's second highest civilian award. From 2005 to 2008, he was the chairman of the Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council. In August 2008, he resigned as chairman of the Council and was nominated as a member of the Rajya Sabha. He resigned from the Rajya Sabha in August 2009 and was re-appointed chairman of the Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council. He resigned from the Council on 19 May 2014, when the UPA government was voted out of power. Since then, he has been the chairman of the

and has been writing and publishing on issues pertaining to the economy. In May 2020, the Tamil Nadu government formed a high-level committee, chaired by Rangarajan, to advise the government on the medium-term response after the COVID-19 lockdown period. The committee submitted its report in September 2020, recommending an urban jobs guarantee program, similar to the state's rural one, and expressing optimism about the economy's ability to rebound in two months' time.

References

External links

A brief note on C. Rangarajan

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rangarajan, Chakravarthi 20th-century Indian economists Tamil scholars Governors of the Reserve Bank of India Recipients of the Padma Vibhushan in literature & education Indian bankers Governors of Andhra Pradesh Governors of Odisha Governors of Tamil Nadu Living people Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad faculty 1932 births Loyola College, Chennai alumni University of Pennsylvania alumni Nominated members of the Rajya Sabha University of Madras alumni National College, Tiruchirappalli alumni Reserve Bank of India