Centre appoints ISB professor as new CEA

New Delhi: The Narendra Modi government on Friday appointed Krishnamurthy Subramanian,  a professor from the country’s leading management school Indian School of Business (ISB), as its new chief economic adviser.

Mr Krishnamurthy, who has been appointed for three years, fills in the role that Arvind Subramanian abruptly vacated in June.

Mr Krishnmurthy, who had supported demonetisation  of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes by the Modi government in 2016, has earned his doctorate in Financial Economics from the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business. While studying for his doctorate, Mr Krishnamurthy was supervised by Raghuram Rajan, who served as RBI governor until late 2016.

He is considered as a banking sector expert and is a professor of finance at ISB.

Mr Krishnamurthy had called demonetisaton “a refreshing change” that resonates well with the sentiment among common, law-abiding citizens.

His expertise in banking may come in handy for the government, which is locked in a bitter dispute with RBI over handling of the nation’s weak banking sector.

The government had invited applications for the post CEA in July.

The key responsibilities of the CEA include providing policy inputs on industrial development and foreign trade, conducting analysis of trends in industrial production and releasing statistical information on key economic indicators. Mr Krishnamurthy has served on the expert committees on corporate governance for the Sebi and on governance of banks for the RBI.

Besides, he was a member of Sebi’s standing committees on Alternative Investment Policy, Primary Markets, Secondary Markets and Research.

He is also on the boards of Bandhan Bank, the National Institute of Bank Management, and the RBI Academy. Before beginning his academic career, Mr Krishnamurthy worked as a consultant with JPMorgan Chase in New York.

In previous academic roles, he served on the finance faculty at Goizueta Business School at Emory University in the US.