Fighting COVID-19: Rajan Among IMF’s High-Profile 12-Member Panel

Washington DC: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Friday named eminent Indian economist Raghuram Rajan and 11 others in its MD Kristalina Georgieva’s external advisory group.

The high-profile panel will provide perspectives from around the globe on important developments and policy issues, including their views on how to respond to the unprecedented challenges the world faces in the wake of the novel coronavirus pandemic.

The 57-year-old Rajan served as governor of the Reserve Bank of India for three years and is currently a professor at the University of Chicago.

Among others on the distinguished panel are Tharman Shanmugaratnam, senior Minister of Singapore and chairman of the Monetary Authority of Singapore; Kristin Forbes, professor of Massachusetts Institute of Technology; former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd; and Lord Mark Malloch Brown, former UN deputy secretary-general.

Georgieva said that the IMF confronted a rapidly evolving world and complex policy issues even before the COVID-19 pandemic broke.

“To serve our membership well in this context, we need top-notch input and expertise from the widest range of sources, inside and outside the Fund,” she said.

“Toward this end, I am proud that an exceptional and diverse group of eminent individuals with high-level policy, market and private sector experience has agreed to serve on my External Advisory Group. Today we had a dynamic discussion to gain their insights, and to receive informal reactions to our ideas and approaches,” stated Georgieva.

The novel coronavirus has killed over 1 lakh people and infected more than 17 lakh across the world so far.