New Delhi: NITI Aayog’s Vice Chairman Arvind Panagariya and former RBI Deputy Governors Subir Gokarn and Rakesh Mohan, the top contenders likely to be announced as early as this week after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s return from his four-national Africa trip.
Among those being talked as possible contenders, 64-year- old Panagariya is also India’s key negotiator at G20 summit and has been Professor of Indian Political Economy at Columbia University. He is a former Chief Economist of the Asian Development Bank and Professor of Economics at the University of Maryland at College Park. He has also worked with the World Bank, IMF and UNCTAD and is PhD in Economics from Princeton University.
Pangariya, who is said to have been mentored by noted economist Jagdish Bhagwati, has been a vocal supporter of various economic policies of Narendra Modi, including as Prime Minister and before that as Chief Minister of Gujarat.