While the Reserve Bank of India is facing criticism from several quarters for losing its autonomy post demonetisation, Viral Acharya is all set to be the deputy Governor of the Reserve bank of India, a post that fell vacant after Urjit Patel became the Governor of RBI on September 8. But who actually Viral is?
Turns out, the new deputy Governor who is going to take charge on January 20 and will serve for the next 3 years has done quite a few interesting things before being appointed for the reputed post. 42-years-old Viral Acharya is presently serving as a Professor of Economics in New York University. Did you know that he aims to be the “Raghuram Rajan” for poor.
While addressing a crowd of people at an event he said,”In 2013, I was going to attend a program organised by Deutsche Bank and I was in the flight reading some bank documents. Suddenly somebody came to me and asked if I was Raghuram Rajan. At that point of time I thought if I could be even 5-10% of what Rajan is capable of I could be the ‘Rajan’ for poor.”
Not many are aware that Acharya who is an IIT Bombay alumni is extremely passionate about music. In fact, it is for the first time that RBI will have a musician deputy Governor who even has a music album of his own. 10 years ago, Viral composed 10 songs and collectively released a music album called ‘Yadon ke Silsile’. Interestingly, whatever he earned from those songs he donated to ‘Pratham’, a charity which helped under privileged kids with their studies.
Apart from his deep interest in music, Viral also suggested many ideas to the Indian banks where he said about privatisation of the banks. He presented several research papers where he explained the deteriorating conditions of banks and how privatisation could help them and enhance Indian economic growth.
