34. Raghuram Rajan
Raghuram Govind Rajan is a major Indian economist and an international Professor teaching Finance at the University of Chicago, Booth School of Business. He has served as the 23rd Governor of Reserve Bank Of India from September 2013 till September 2016. He is the “celebrity central banker”, who came to the limelight for predicting the 2008 global recession. As RBI Governor, he received admiration from all quarters for not succumbing to the demands for lowering lending rates. The ex-chief economist at the International Monetary Fund also fought for RBI’s autonomy ever since he was appointed as its Governor. Rajan in 2014 was bestowed with the “Governor of the Year Award 2014” by Euromoney Magazine, which is a London based finance journal on central banking. Recently in 2019, he was awarded with “Yashwantrao Chavan National Award 2018” for his massive contribution towards economic development of the country. His book Fault Lines: How Hidden Fractures Still Threaten the World Economy won the Financial Times-Goldman Sachs award for Best Business Book in 2010.
