Former CEA Arvind Subramanian is returning to India, to join Ashoka University as economics professor

Arvind Subramanian, the former chief economic adviser to Government of India, is set to join Ashoka University as a professor in the economics department and as founding director of the new Ashoka Centre for economic policy.

Subramanian, on June 26, tweeted that he will start the new assignment beginning July. He is presently the visiting lecturer at the Harvard Kennedy School. At Ashoka Centre, Subramanian will engage in research and analysis on policy issues related to India and global development.

Last year, Subramanian kicked off a controversy saying India’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is overestimated by at least 2.5 percent between 2011-12 and 2016-17 due to a change in methodology for calculating GDP.

Subramanian argued that the GDP growth during this period should be about 4.5 percent instead of the official estimate of close to 7 percent. "India changed its data sources and methodology for estimating real GDP for the period since 2011-12. This paper shows that this change has led to a significant overestimation of growth," Subramanian had stated in his research paper.