NEW DELHI (AP) – The governor of India’s central bank said Saturday that he will not seek a second term and will return to academia when his term ends in September.
Raghuram Rajan’s announcement ends speculation over whether Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government will give him another three-year term with India’s economy growing at an impressive 7.5 percent. That made India the world’s fastest-growing major economy, overtaking China’s growth in the January to March quarter.
Rajan was appointed the Reserve Bank of India’s governor by the previous Congress party government three years ago. Some leaders of Modi’s Hindu nationalist party recently criticized him for adopting a hard line against inflation despite pressure to cut interest rates to push India’s economic growth.
Subramanian Swamy, a lawmaker from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, attacked Rajan for his hawkish stance on interest rates, and questioned whether Rajan was “mentally, fully Indian as he holds a U.S. green card,” according to the Press Trust of India news agency.
Since becoming head of the central bank, Rajan has been on leave as a professor of finance at the University of Chicago.