11 quotes by outgoing RBI governor Raghuram Rajan that showed that bankers can be cool

In a surprising announcement, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Raghuram Rajan on Saturday said that he would return to the academic world at the end of his term on September 4, 2016, adding he will always be available to serve his country when needed and asserted that his ‘successor’ would take the nation to new heights.  Rajan is currently on leave from the Chicago Booth School of Business where he holds the post of Distinguished Service Professor of Finance.  In a statement issued today, Rajan stated that he was a strong ‘academic’ and had always made it clear that his ultimate home is in the ‘realm of ideas’.

Check out his top quotes: 

1.“I think we have still to get to a place where we feel satisfied. We have this saying - ‘In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king’. We are a little bit that way.”

2.“No one wants to go after the rich and well-connected wrong-doer, which means they get away with even more. If we are to have strong sustainable growth, this culture of impunity should stop.”

3.“I don’t know what you want to call me... Santa Claus... you want to call me hawk, I don’t know. I don’t go by this. My name is Raghuram Rajan and I do what I do.”

4.“I don’t want to take that James Bond (image). But, a banker on the move — I will take that.”

5.“It is not because of the benevolence of the baker that we eat fresh bread every morning but because of his desire to make money.”

6.“We are neither hawks nor doves. We are actually owls.”

7.“The governorship of the central bank is not meant to win one votes or Facebook “likes”. But I hope to do the right thing, no matter what the criticism, even while looking to learn from the criticism.”

8.“Expectations are high. Clearly I am not a superman. There is a little bit of euphoria in India.”

9.“It would be fair to say the world has never had it so good. But there are challenges building in the background.”

10.“A forced equalization of wages that disregards the marginal contributions of different workers will deaden incentives and lead to a misallocation of resources and effort.” 

11.“Politicians today vow, “Never again!” But they will naturally focus only on dealing with a few scapegoats, not just because the system is harder to change, but also because if politicians traced the fault lines, they would find a few running through themselves.” 

With agency inputs