JOIN USRBI Governor Raghuram Rajan delivered the Vithal N Chandavarkar Memorial Lecture at the Indian Institute of Science campus here on Friday.
He mentioned that the talk was going to be “a mix of history, and technology and economics”. Beginning with the great depression of the last century, Rajan went through the process of resurgent growth that followed, the decisions that countries made, and the subsequent decline leading up to the present times.
He demonstrated how in order to fight inflation — the first demon the modern economy faced — the Anglo-American approach was different from the rest of Europe, and how both were met with successes for a while.
He then touched upon the second hiccup of ‘debt’ that the world faced, of how the housing boom was pushed as a solution for the stagnant wage problem in the US.
He cited the enormous interest in Indian startups as one of the manifestations of capital growth.
Rajan then had a lively question and answer session. He spoke of the broad consensus across the establishment for the need for targeted subsidies, and how the Aadhar and direct benefit transfer (DBT) were ways to do that.