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- By Aditya Pratap Singh
- Thu, 28 Mar 2024 02:48 PM (IST)
- Source:JND
Former RBI governor Raghuram Rajan has once again faced criticism from certain sections of people for his comment on India's economic growth and its ambition of becoming a developed nation by 2027.
Rajan said in an interview with Bloomberg that India is making a big mistake in believing the "hype" over its robust economic growth and still has years of work to make it a reality.
India needs to focus on improving its structural problems, which include poor education and workforce skills, to fulfill its true potential, said the 61-year-old economist. According to Raghuram Rajan, the new government sworn in after the 2024 general elections should keep solving these pending issues as its key priority.
India Not Likely To Become a Developed Nation By 2047: Rajan
If a large number of children do not complete high school education and the dropout rate is high, it is unlikely that India will become a developed economy by 2047, and if this is the case, it is 'nonsense' to talk about it, the former RBI governor said.
His comments sparked controversy with some economists calling his claims "foolish" and out of touch with the reality in India. "Silly arguments by 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," posted Mohandas Pai, Chairperson of Manipal Global Education.
Macroeconomist and Niti Aayog member Arvind Virmani also said that Raghuram Rajan's remarks seemed made by international experts who had never seen India before. "During the 1990s BOP crisis, we used to have a word for visiting WB, IMF, and other MDB economists: “Parachute economists”. It is Sad that a former RBI Governor sounds like that to someone who has worked on the Indian economy for 1/2 a century," Virmani posted on X (formerly Twitter).
Raghuram Rajan has been vocal against the economic policies of Narendra Modi's government ever since he resigned from the RBI governor post back in 2016. In his interview, Rajan also questioned India's focus on chip manufacturing and said that the nation should focus on fixing the education system first.
He is a professor of finance at the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business, he summed up that India needs to do more to achieve 8 percent growth on a sustainable basis.
