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Teachers and friends of India's new Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian remember how his friends and he once bought a second-hand car from the money they earned during summer assignments while studying at the Indian Institute of Management (IIM)-Ahmedabad.
"I remember some of the students, including Arvind Subramanian, Ivan Menezes (now, chief executive of Diageo) and Lalit Bhojwani (of Origin Consultants), had bought a second-hand car out of the money they earned for their summer assignments," said Nayan Parikh, president, IIM-A Alumni Association, and Subramanian's batchmate. "Often, the car would not start and other students would be called to push it."
Subramanian was a student at the premier management institute from 1979 to 1981, pursuing a post-graduate programme. He was taught by such luminaries as former Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor C Rangarajan and former IIM-A director Bakul Dholakia. They all remember Subramanian as a bright student, interested in research, with a deep liking for economics and finance. They are also confident that the country's economy is now in safe hands.
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"This is a positive development for the IIM-A fraternity. Raghuram Rajan as RBI governor and now Arvind Subramanian as chief economic advisor are going to make significant contribution to the Indian economy," said Dholakia, now the director-general of International Management Institute.
"A highly established and talented faculty member like Rangarajan became the RBI Governor, as did Rajan. Now, Subramanian is the CEA. IIM-Ahmedabad is making a significant contribution in the building of the Indian economy."
Remembering Subramanian as a "bright student", Dholakia said, "He was deeply interested in economics and finance. We had a compulsory course on macroeconomics called Economic Environment and Policy, which Rangarajan and I used to teach." Dholakia also remembers Subramanian had an inclination for research and was not interested in pursuing a corporate career.
Another faculty who remembers the new CEA from when he was a student is Abhinandan Jain. "He was down-to-earth and understated."
