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Raghuram Rajan draws flak for comments on India’s growth, experts call him ‘parachute economist’

28 Mar 2024, 03:02 PM IST
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Written By Saurav Mukherjee

India is making a big mistake in believing the ‘hype’ around its strong economic growth, the former RBI governor say

ABHIJIT BHATLEKAR/MINT/FILE

Former Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor and renowned economist Raghuram Rajan is facing flak for his remarks on India’s growth, where he mentioned significant structural problems that need to be fixed, Bloomberg reported.

According to Rajan, India is making a big mistake in believing the ‘hype’ around its strong economic growth, adding that it will take several years of hard work to make it real.

The economist was of the view that for a country like India, it is vital to first improve its structural problems to meet its true potential. The structural problems he mentioned included poor education and skills of the workforce.

Rajan even advised the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Union government to prioritise fixing these pending issues.

ALSO READ: ‘Greatest mistake India can make…’: Former RBI Guv Raghuram Rajan cautions against believing ‘hype’ about growth

The former central bank governor expressed his doubts about India becoming a developed economy by 2047, adding that it would be ‘nonsense’ to talk of that goal, in situations especially ‘if so many of your kids don’t have a high school education and drop-out rates remain high’.

Following his remarks, several economists referred to them as ‘silly’ and not related to the ground reality.

Taking to X, Chairman of Manipal Global Education, Mohandas Pai, wrote, “Silly arguments by RR (Raghuram Rajan), school dropout rates are down, college enrolment increased, huge jobs created, Wrong comparison about chil subsidy given over many years, to annual spend on HE."

Another macroeconomist and NITI Ayog member Arvind Virmani too rejected Rajan’s views. He said that Rajan’s remarks appeared like those made by global experts who have never been to India.

"During the 1990s BOP crisis, we used to have a word for visiting WB, IMF and other MDB economists: “Parachute economists". Sad that a former RBI Governor sounds like that to someone who has worked on Indian economy for 1/2 a century," Virmani said in a post on X (formerly Twitter).

Rajan – a professor of finance at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business – had criticised the Indian government for its focus on high-profile projects like chip manufacturing, and not focusing on working to fix the education system. According to him, India needs to put more effort to achieve 8 per cent growth on a sustainable basis.