Re-joins University of Chicago Booth School of Business, Chicago
Reserve Bank of India’s former governor Raghuram Rajan has joined University of Chicago’s business school as its Katherine Dusak Miller Distinguished Service Professor of Finance.
“This has been my home for 25 years. It’s a great city. I have great colleagues. And it’s a wonderful school. It’s different every time you come back. If it wasn’t different, it wouldn’t be doing its job,” Rajan said to the media team at the university’s Booth School of Business, PTI reported.
Ranjan, who served as RBI governor for three years from 2013, will teach the International Corporate Finance course in the winter term.
Rajan expressed delight that he could now bike his way in Chicago.
“Taking my bike out and riding the bike path along Lake Shore Drive, that’s one of the great experiences in my life. And I hope to do it as long as I can. It’s great to be back,” he said.
The 54-year-old economist noted that one of the difficulties of a job in the “real world” is that one does not really get time to shut oneself off in a room and think.
“Now in academia,…if your are careful, you can spend four days in a room, sit looking at a piece of paper and struggling with though that refuses to come out. At the end, sometimes, you say, ‘Oh my God, how did I miss this?’ and it dawns on you. And that’s as close to bliss as you can get,” Rajan said, PTI reported.
Rajan announced his plan to return to academia on 18 June 2016 and said that he will not serve a second term as RBI governor. As Reserve Bank governor, Rajan made curbing inflation his primary focus, bringing down retail inflation from 9.8% in September 2013 to 3.78% in July 2015, the lowest since the 1990s.
He had a controversy-ridden tenure in RBI as he faced severe criticism from some political quarters including personal attacks. His exit was one of the most-talked about developments of recent times.