CLSA clamours for another term for Rajan as RBI Governor

Mumbai: Raghuram Rajan may have rubbed the government the wrong way on many occasions but no politician could ever rubbish his thought process and clarity of his ideology as the fact remains that like Dr Manmohan Singh of 1991, he was instrumental in consolidating the currency market since he took over as Governor of RBI in September 2013.

His ''India is the one-eyed king in the land of the blind" could not go down well with the vote-driven polity it was proved beyond doubt that it was him who diluted the currency crisis of 2013 when the rupee had hit a record low of 68.85 per dollar.

Now comes the time of reckoning as his term is coming to an end in September this year.

'India is one eyed The rupee could come under serious pressure if Reserve Bank Governor Raghuram Rajan's term is not renewed by the Narendra Modi government, says global brokerage CLSA. Dr Rajan's three-year term as RBI governor will come to an end in September 2016.

It is no mean achievement for him if the foreign agencies have started clamouring for him. CLSA, one of the leading independent and longest running brokerage and investment groups of Asia, has come out with a suggestion that if Rajan's term was not extended, there was a huge risk to currency market. "The biggest risk to currency market is if Rajan's term is not renewed," wrote CLSA analyst Christopher Wood.

Not only the currency market, but his approach towards high inflation and in turn the inete31rest rates fixed by the central bank has also come in for praise from the experts, not necessarily the politicians.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitely has always been non-committal about extension to rajan but CLSA's recent observation is worth a fresh contemplation.