The government appointed V Anantha Nageswaran as the chief economic advisor. He has assumed charge, the Ministry of Finance said on Friday.
The appointment comes just ahead of the government's economic survey and Budget 2022. The former Chief Economic Advisor Krishnamurthy Subramanian's term ended in December.
Nageswaran has wide-ranging experience across financial markets, research and academics.
He holds a postgraduate diploma in management from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, and a doctoral degree in finance from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. His PhD thesis revolved around the empirical behavior of exchange rates.
Over the course of his career, Nageswaran has worked with UBS, Credit Suisse and Bank Julius Bear in various capacities. More recently, he has veered into academics.
He was the dean of the IFMR Graduate School of Business and a distinguished Visiting Professor of Economics at Krea University. He has also been a part-time member of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister of India from 2019 to 2021. In addition, Nageswaran is an active writer in newspapers and through his blog "The Gold Standard".
In a book co-authored with Gulzar Natarajan, the Nageswaran's policy recommendations included embracing a feasible growth model, prioritising growth-friendly policies and fostering greater federalism.
The book, titled, “Can India grow?” published in 2016, stated that the government must accept that sustained growth rates of 8% or more are likely out of reach. It should resist short-term growth strategies that rely on bubbles and fads by instead promising less and delivering more, it said.
His most recent book, “The Rise of Finance: Causes, Consequences and Cures”, was published in 2019.
Commenting on the appointment, principal economic advisor Sanjeev Sanyal said he welcomes his ”old friend“ to the ministry.
Very pleased to welcome my old friend Anantha Nageswaran as the new Chief Economic Adviser at the Ministry of Finance....... pic.twitter.com/2MyVIu0rYv
Former member of the Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council Rathin Roy, too, welcomed the appointment and called Nageswaran an accomplished policy professional.
I am extremely pleased that Dr Anantha Nageswaran has been appointed Chief Economic Advisor. An accomplished policy professional, he will bring much needed expertise back to the finance ministry. I affectionately wish him a productive tenure.
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