17th Governor of Andhra Pradesh

Early Life

C. Rangarajan or Chakravarthi Rangarajan (born 1932) is an Indian economist and a distinguished former Member of Parliament and Governor of the Reserve Bank of India. Currently, he is the Chairman of the Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council. He is also the Chairman of the Madras School of Economics, and the Founding Chairman of the CR Rao Advanced Institute of Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science.

Rangarajan graduated from Loyola College of the University of Madras in the commerce stream (where he was a contemporary of the Yale University economics professor T N Srinivasan). He later received his Ph.D. in economics from the University of Pennsylvania in 1964. His thesis was titled "Variability of Demand Deposits".

Career

CareerRangarajan taught at several institutions including the University of Pennsylvania and the IIM-A. He was a well known teacher of economics at IIMA for the postgraduate and the doctoral courses.His textbook on macro economics was used in business management schools. He was awarded the title of Honorary Fellow of IIM-A in 1997.

In 2002, the Government of India awarded him the Padma Vibhushan, India's second highest civilian award. He served as a Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of India from 1982 to 1991, after which he served as the Governor of the Reserve Bank of India between December 22, 1992 and December 21, 1997

He also served as the Governor of Andhra Pradesh from November 24, 1997 to January 3, 2003. After demitting that office, he took charge as the Chairman of the Twelfth Finance Commission. From 2005 onwards, he was the Chairman of the Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council.

In August 2008, he resigned as the Chairman of the Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council and was nominated as a member of the Rajya Sabha. He resigned from the Rajya Sabha in August 2009 and was re-appointed the Chairman of the Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council. While serving as the governor of Andhra Pradesh, he also received additional charges as governor of Odisha from 1998 to 1999 and as governor of Tamil Nadu from 2001 to 2002.