Delhi:
Subir Gokarn, the eminent economist and former deputy governor of the Reserve Bank of India, died. He was 60. Shamika Ravi, the member of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM), took to Twitter to confirm the tragedy. "I share this with a heavy heart...Subir Gokarn, my friend and colleague, passed away a few hours back," Ravi said on micro-blogging site. Gokarn was appointed as an executive director on the board of the International Monetary Fund in November, 2015. He was appointed the deputy governor of the Reserve Bank of India in 2009 for a term of three years and had the distinction of being the youngest deputy governor at that time. He was also associated with Brooking's India.
According to a Business Standard report, Gokarn was battling from cancer. He breathed his last in Washington DC. Gokarn was the first Indian central banker who regularised warnings to the government, through the monetary policy statement. For those who knew him, Gokarn was famous for his witty humour. A Business Standard report said that shortly after his appointment as the deputy RBI governor, a reporter congratulated him. Instead of usual thank you, Gokarn replied: “I thought you would be sad that you can’t call me on my mobile anymore.â€
He was also Chief Economist of Standard & Poor’s Asia-Pacific and before that the Executive Director and Chief Economist of CRISIL. He had a Master’s Degree in Economics from the Delhi School of Economics and received a doctorate in Economics from Case Western Reserve University, USA in 1989. He was also associated with the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) as chief economist and was a Associate Professor at the Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research in Mumbai from 1991-2000.
