Forks in the Road

My Days at RBI and Beyond

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‘One doesn’t plan one’s life fully. Some of it is planned, but some of it is purely accidental. Much of my life is a matter of circumstance,’ says C. Rangarajan.

In this book, the veteran economist and policymaker provides a captivating account of his professional journey, starting with his purely accidental entry into the RBI in 1982. Rangarajan, regarded as one of the tallest figures in the history of India’s economic reforms, provides crucial insights into the role he played as part of the team which initiated far-reaching reforms in India’s economy in the early 1990s. The path-breaking reforms that he implemented during his tenure as governor of RBI included deregulation of interest rates, strengthening of the banking system by a gradual tightening of prudential norms, creation and nurturing of financial markets, giving them depth and vibrancy, shifting to market-determined exchange rates, making the rupee convertible on the current account and the cessation of automatic monetization of budget deficit.
Rangarajan describes the key events between 1982 and 2014, particularly in the areas of money and finance, explaining not only what happened but also the motivations and processes behind them. As a public figure and an architect of economic change in India, he also ruminates about his interactions with both political and economic actors. Forks in the Road is not only a memoir of a man who shaped India’s economy and positively impacted the lives of many, but also a fascinating account of India’s growth story. It is a description of what we did and what we did not, and where we succeeded and where we failed.