Raghuram Rajan to soon publish book I Do What I Do on tenure at central bank

Raghuram Rajan is coming out with a new book containing his commentary and speeches exactly a year after leaving Reserve Bank of India.

The book is being published by HarperCollins India and would offer a view of his tenure at the central bank. The book is titled I Do What I Do.

Priced at Rs 699, the book is available for pre-order at a discount of 24-25 per cent on Amazon and Flipkart.

Raghuram Rajan explains economic concepts and talks of issues like tolerance and connection between political freedom and prosperity in his new book.

When Rajan took charge as governor of the Reserve Bank of India in September 2013, the rupee was in free fall, inflation was high, India had a large current account deficit, and exchange reserves were falling.

As measure after measure failed to stabilise markets, speculators sensed a full-blown crisis and labelled India one of the Fragile Five economies.

At the end of his tenure, Rajan has said that he won’t engage in public discourse for a year after leaving the central bank. The book is being launched at the end of the tenure.

The book takes its name from Rajan’s famous quote on September 29, 2015 policy, when the RBI had cut rates by half a percentage point, surprising many.

A press release by HarperCollins India mentions Rajan’s emotions on assuming the responsibility of RBI governorship. “The rupee stops here. Right here!” — a play on the phrase “The buck stops here”.  

“Rajan’s commentary and speeches in I Do What I Do convey what it was like to be at the helm of the central bank in those turbulent but exciting times,” the publisher’s statement said.

This is not Rajans first book. He co-authored "Saving Capitalism from the Capitalists" with Luigi Zingales and wrote "Fault Lines: How Hidden Fractures Still Threaten the World Economy", for which he was awarded the Financial Times-Goldman Sachs prize for best business book.