Rangarajan, Krishna to take oath as RS member

New Delhi, Aug 14 (UNI) Former RBI Governor C Rangarajan has been nominated to the Rajya Sabha by President Pratibha Devisingh Patil.

He will take oath on Monday along with Congress leader and former Karnataka chief minister S M Krishna.

Dr Rangarajan, till recently Chairman of the Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council (EAC), has been nominated in the vacancy caused by the demise of noted Gandhian Nirmala Deshpande.

A widely respected economist, Dr Rangarajan was Governor of Reserve Bank of India from 1992 to 1997. He also served as the RBI Deputy Governor for nearly a decade. From 1997 to 2003, he served as Governor of Andhra Pradesh. He has also been a member of the Planning Commission and headed the 12th Finance Commission.

Dr Rangarajan taught at University of Pennsylvania, Indian School of Business and IIM-Ahmedabad. He was honoured with the Padma Vibhushan, the country's second highest civilian award in 2002.

Mr Krishna was Governor of Maharashtra till early this year. He resigned the Governorship a month before the state assembly elections in Karnataka. Though he was tipped to be the Chief Ministerial candidate of the Congress, the BJP has won the elections and formed the government.

UNI SH/PMD LPB BST1818