I Do What I Do

When Raghuram G. Rajan became Governor of the Reserve Bank of India in September 2013, the rupee was in free fall, inflation was high, the current account deficit was large and foreign exchange reserves were shrinking. Measure after measure failed to calm markets, and speculators began calling India one of the Fragile Five economies.

Rajan responded with bold action aimed at more than the immediate panic. He wanted to show the strength of India's institutions and its reform programme, and he set out a vision centred on long-term growth and stability that helped bring investors back. The same boldness and long view marked his decisions over the following three years.

I Do What I Do collects his speeches and commentary from that period and gives a sense of what it was like to run the central bank during turbulent, exciting times. He explains economic ideas in plain terms, from dosanomics to debt relief, and takes up questions that no banking manual covers, such as the role of tolerance and respect in India's economic progress and the link between political freedom and prosperity.

The book offers a close view into the thinking of one of the world's most respected economists, and into the weight carried by every RBI Governor at his desk on the 18th floor, where the rupee stops.