Viral Acharya's RBI exit marks end of an unsuccessful UPA-era experiment

The import of academics without any government experience at top Indian institutions was based on the belief that a mere knowledge of academic economics would be enough to serve in government

The premature departure of Viral Acharya, deputy governor of the RBI, hopefully marks the end of a very unsuccessful experiment started by the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government in 2013, when it brought in Raghuram Rajan as the Governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
 
This was followed by the appointment of Urjit Patel and Viral Acharya, both academics without any experience in government.
 
In the government itself, the experiment was started in 2009 when Kaushik Basu was appointed the Chief Economic Advisor in the finance ministry, followed by Arvind Subramaniam. And, we must not forget Arvind