Meet Arvind Subramanian, chief economic advisor and a professor at heart

Chief Economic Advisor has a freewheeling lunch with Rahul Jacob over food from a North Block dhaba

One of the nine youngsters at lunch who are part of Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian’s team is speaking about the previous day’s Supreme Court judgment disallowing two private power companies from passing on cost escalations that are the result of a change in regulations overseas or foreign fuel price hikes when the phone rings. Subramanian lets out a whoop of delight. The call turns out to be an approval of funds in a matter of weeks — a nanosecond by the standards of Lutyens’ Delhi — that Subramanian had pleaded for to restore the sculptures of the influential Bengali