IIT Delhi got 'shut for a day': RBI ex-governor Raghuram Rajan reveals how he played a part

Raghuram Rajan, the former Governor of the Reserve Bank of India, is one of the most famous alumni of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi, the country’s leading engineering institution. Rajan, a globally renowned economist, recently revealed an incident from his engineering days, calling it “Not my proudest moment”.

Rajan revealed that he was a student leader during his IIT days and contested an election. He explained that IIT elections were not between parties but students contest individually. During his time at IIT-Delhi, Rajan served as the Secretary of the English Debating Society and then as the Student Affairs Council’s General Secretary.

The RBI ex-Governor was also part of a strike conducted by students against the IIT authority over PhD students not getting scholarships. This led to IIT getting shut for a day, he said in a recent interaction with an online news channel. He said that it was not his “proudest moment”. He said that while he was “involved in politics”, Rajan “fortunately” was able to get out of it too.

The former RBI Governor earned a BTech degree in electrical engineering at IIT-Delhi where he studied between 1981 and 1985. He also holds an MBA degree from the prestigious Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Ahmedabad. He received his PhD from the world famous Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the US.

The US-based economist is currently back in India for promotion of a new publication ‘Breaking the Mould’, which he has co-authored with another academic, Pennsylvania State University assistant professor Rohit Lamba.