Breaking the Mould – A Presentation by Dr Raghuram Rajan

ABOUT THE PRESENTATION

India is at a crossroads today. Its growth rate, while respectable relative to other large countries, is too low for the jobs its youth need. The East Asian path of manufacturing-led exports no longer seems feasible – the world is not ready for another China exporting goods to grow. India broke away from the standard development path—from agriculture to low-skilled manufacturing, then high-skilled manufacturing and, finally, services—a long time ago by leapfrogging the intermediate steps. Rather than attempting to revert to development paths that may not be feasible anymore, Dr Rohit Lamba and Dr Raghuram Rajan explain in Breaking the Mould: Reimagining India’s Economic Future how India can accelerate economic development by investing in its people’s human capital, expanding opportunities in high-skilled services and manufacturing centered on innovative new products, and making India a ferment of ideas and creativity. India’s democratic traditions will support this path, helped further by governance reforms, including strengthening its democratic institutions and effecting greater decentralization. By breaking from the past and looking to the future, India can craft a truly Indian way. This book explains how.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Dr Raghuram G Rajan is the Katherine Dusak Miller Distinguished Service Professor of Finance at Chicago Booth. He was the 23rd Governor of the Reserve Bank of India (September 2013 – September 2016). Between 2003 and 2006, Dr Rajan was the Chief Economist and Director of Research at the International Monetary Fund. He was the President of the American Finance Association in 2011 and is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

In 2003, Dr Rajan won the inaugural Fischer Black Prize awarded by the American Finance Association for contributions to the theory and practice of finance by an economist under age 40. In February 2010, NASSCOM named him a Global Indian at its 7th Annual Global Leadership Awards. In 2010, his book Fault Lines: How Hidden Fractures Still Threaten the World Economy was awarded the Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award. In 2014, he was conferred the Best Central Bank Governor award by Euromoney Magazine and Central Banking financial journal.

He completed his Bachelor’s Degree in Electrical Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. He pursued his Post Graduate Diploma in Business Administration, at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, and his Doctoral Program in Management, at the MIT Sloan School of Management.