Kaushik Basu not to take up govt role, returns to academia

WASHINGTON: After serving the World Bank as its chief economist for about four years, India’s former chief economic advisor Kaushik Basu says he will not take up

WASHINGTON: After serving the World Bank as its chief economist for about four years, India’s former chief economic advisor Kaushik Basu says he will not take up any position in the Indian government and plans to return to Cornell University and focus on his research projects.

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Basu, whose name was earlier doing the rounds among probable contenders for the post of Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor as successor to Raghuram Rajan, ruled out taking up any position from the Indian government.

Incidentally, Rajan has also returned to academia to teach at Chicago Booth School of Business after his tenure at RBI ended on September 4.

“Not now, and for two reasons. First, the government will not offer it, and second, I won’t take it. My most important task is a research project on understanding why laws are so often so good on paper but so poorly implemented. This will involve economic theory, law, game theory and a lot of thinking. I have some exciting ideas and my plan is to focus on these over the next several months,” Basu said.