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I'm a little early for a 6 pm appointment at the NUS B-school's Mochtar Riady building. The school is almost empty and I have no difficulty reaching the seventh floor, occupied mostly by faculty and management staff. Few steps to the right of the elevator is a room with a name plate that says "Dr Duvvuri Subbarao, Distinguished Visiting Fellow." The door is slightly open. As I approach, a lady walks from the adjacent room and knocks on Subbarao's door and shouts, "I really enjoyed the lecture."
As he thanks his colleague who is hurrying to catch a flight and bids her good bye, he sees me and waves me in. He is curious about what I am doing in Singapore. I tell him about my 10 eventful weeks in Singapore with journalists from a dozen different countries at the Asia Journalism Fellowship. We also realise we are staying in the same neighbourhood on the western side of the city. I explain my interest in markets and financial sector regulation and how I thought spending some time with the former governor of RBI would take my understanding meter several levels higher. "I am out of touch now. When you are at the bank, it is different. The staff keep updating on many things and you are always on top of all developments." he says in all humility.
"You are being too humble," I prod, adding, "Even I am out of touch." After briefly pondering over the takeover of a large media group by the largest listed company and the challenges it poses for financial regulators, our talk moves to the Modi government.
Bringing back investment will be a major challenge, he says, despite the revival in sentiment. The man, who managed expectations of the Indian economy for five crucial post-crisis years, also feels the government is pushing itself into a corner by setting 100-day goals. "The task for the government is a marathon, not a sprint. Setting 100-day goals run the risk of mismanaging expectations. Maybe one-year targets with inputs linked to definitive outcomes would be better," he says.
I make one more pitch for a detailed interview, but he says he has decided not to give interviews to any Indian publication for the next one year. "It would be given some unnecessary colour. I don't want that."
Subbarao may be far away from mobbing cameras and flashbulbs in the financial capital, but his schedule is packed . "I had three lectures today," he says coolly. As a visiting fellow, he doesn't have any regular teaching mandates, but divides his time between the Monetary Authority of Singapore(MAS), the NUS Business School and the Institute of South Asian Studies. Each of these institutions gets a week of Subbanomics every month.
He has a lecture at the MAS in the next couple of days. "It is a high security building. It would have been difficult for you to get in there. That's why I called you here," he says considerately.
The academic community in Singapore is thrilled to have the former Indian central banker in their midst. Videos of his interviews and blogs about his talks adorn the home page of the B-school's website. In one such session, he says one thing India has lagged behind and can learn from China is to keep the promises it makes to investors.
Fund managers and professionals are equally enchanted. One even fell at his feet at a recent event ( I first met the ex-governor here), seeking his blessings and later explaining a curious Singaporean delegate about the popular 'Indian custom.'
After some discussion about peers and colleagues in RBI and government, I ask him about his home state which is in the middle of a painful division. He thinks it was purely a political move, which did not pay the expected dividends, but expected things to settle. "I am from coastal Andhra. I have a house in Hyderabad. I am going to live there," he says.
His arrangement with the Singapore institutions will allow him to spend the six months here in a staggered manner over a year, allowing him trips back home.
Though my questions pipeline was brimming, I sense the long day was too tiring for him to continue. He wishes me well and apologises again for not being able to give a full interview.
"May be I can do a piece on our meeting saying how a fellow met a distinguished fellow?," I throw my sudden brainwave at him.
To my delight, he agrees after giving it a moment of thought.
"You journalists are very fast. Do you plan to write it today itself?" he asks.
"Sooner the better or the memory fades," I say, before bidding adieu.
