The Indian government on Thursday appointed a U.S.-based economist Arvind Subramanian as the Chief Economic Adviser for a term of 3 years.
Subramanian, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Peterson Institute for International Economics, has previously worked in the International Monetary Fund between 1992 and 2013, when the current Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan headed the lender's research department as the chief economist.
His appointment as the economic adviser is set to add more clout to the pro-business Prime Minister Narendra Modi's nationalist economic reforms. Subramanian is likely to extend support to Rajan's monetary policy and banking reform plans.
The economist, who is also a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development in Washington, served at the GATT between 1988 and 1992 during the Uruguay Round of trade negotiations.
Further, he has published several books on economics and policy and writes columns in the U.K. daily Financial Times and an Indian financial newspaper Business Standard.
Also on Thursday, the government named Rajiv Mehrishi as the Finance Secretary, replacing the incumbent Arvind Mayaram.
The bureaucratic shuffle by the Modi government is seen as steps to begin preparing the groundwork for Finance Minister Arun Jaitley's first full annual budget next February.
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