Former IMF Chief Economist is advisor to Prime Minister

New Delhi, Nov 3 (UNI) Dr Raghuraman Rajan, former International Monetary Fund Chief economist, has been appointed Honorary Economic Adviser to the Prime Minister, it was announced here today.

A statement from the Prime Minister's Office said Dr Raghuram Rajan will hold the rank and status of Secretary to the Government of India.

Dr Rajan, is currently a Finance Professor at the University of Chicago's Graduate School of Business.

He recently headed a panel on financial sector reforms in India, which issued a draft report calling on the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to give primacy to controlling inflation. The 229-page draft said the Central Bank should set a target range for inflation and move to a single instrument such as short-term rates to achieve that goal.

The Report has also offered a slew of recommendations to make India a financial powerhouse over the next five years.

Dr Rajan is a doctorate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He was awarded the Doctorate of Philosophy in 1991.

Earlier, he did his master's in business administration from the Indian Institute of Management at Ahmedabad and a bachellor's degree in electrical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology in New Delhi.

Dr Rajan has also been a visiting Professor of Finance at the Kellogg School, Northwestern University, and Fischer Black visiting Professor at MIT's Sloan School of Management.

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