Ex-RBI guvs give thumbs-up to Raghuram Rajan's appointment

The government has appointed Raghuram Rajan, the chief economic adviser in the finance ministry, to be the next governor of the Reserve Bank of India for a three year term.

Rajan will replace Duvvuri Subbarao, whose tenure ends on September 4 after five years. (More details) EX GOVERNORS REACT
C RANGARAJAN, PMEAC
"Raghu comes with an excellent background in financial matters. He has been one of the outstanding professors and in the one year or so he has been dealing with the problems as they arise in India. Therefore, at the moment I think that he will make an excellent governor.
He has a lot of familiarity with the Indian economics and the Indian system. There are lots of professors in the United States, the Indian professors, even though they stay in United States, they keep in touch with what is happening in India almost on a day-to-day basis. They being away from India does not mean that they are not acquainted with the Indian problems. In fact, they are able to study the Indian problems even more in an intelligent and in a global perspective. Therefore, he is absolutely familiar with the Indian financial system.
In the last 12 months or so he has seen working of both the government and the Reserve Bank and all this will come as a supplement to his excellent academic credentials and qualification."
BIMAL JALAN, EX-RBI GOVERNOR
"He (Raghuram Rajan) is an extremely experienced person. He has worked in the International Monetary Fund (IMF). He knows the global economy; he knows our economy and is an excellent economist. So I am absolutely confident that whatever he can do he will do it.
Heading any institution like the central bank anywhere else in the world is always a very challenging task because you are dealing with multiple problems. In our case it is not only the monetary policy, the current account deficit (CAD), you have got the growth to be reconciled and so on and so forth and the global economy is more or less at a very difficult period. It is a very challenging task, but we have a good man to face the challenge."
RAKESH MOHAN, FORMER DY GOVERNOR, RBI
"He (Rajan) is one of the foremost finance economists in the world and so this is really good news indeed. We will have someone like him in the Reserve Bank for the next three years.
The global economy is still recovering from 2008-2009 crisis. The management of the global economy itself continues to be somewhat challenging.
One advantage Raghu has is that he is familiar with the developments of the world and is extreme knowledgeable and thoughtful so I do think that he is an excellent appointment." MARKET REACTION
The partially convertible rupee trimmed losses to trade at 61.35/36 per dollar from 61.45 before the announcement.
The benchmark 10-year bond yield dropped 2 basis points to 8.21 percent.
The stock market closed ahead of the announcement.