US Ropes In Ex-RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan For Key Federal Role

Washington: Former Reserve Bank of India governor Raghuram Rajan has been appointed to a key role in a new US Federal Reserve initiative, along with two other experts of Indian origin, Raj Chetty and Asha Sharma.

Chetty is a Delhi-born American economist and Sharma is a senior Microsoft executive. Although the Federal Reserve has not yet announced the specific roles that the three will play, this move is intended to bring new perspectives that can reshape monetary policy in the inflation-burdened country.

New Federal Reserve Governor Kevin Warsh announced the establishment of five task forces as part of the initiative. Former Bank of England governor Mervyn King, former Walmart CEO Doug McMillon, Nobel laureate Thomas Sargent and Silicon Valley venture capitalist Marc Andreessen are also part of the task forces.

“I’m honored that the best minds from a range of disciplines have agreed to work with us to improve our performance as an institution. The goal is simple: to ensure the Fed is best positioned to achieve our goals at this important time,” Warsh said in a statement Thursday. he said.

Rajan’s first big challenge is expected to be addressing interest rates that remain above the Federal Reserve’s target. His task will likely be to examine the central bank’s balance sheet, according to a PTI report.

Warsh said, “I talked to 15 people. I got different ideas from them and decided to move forward with them.” However, he did not disclose further details about the initiative.