India's economy: Tomorrow's challenges, today

Shankar Acharya is undoubtedly a unique personality. Disarmingly affable yet ruthlessly incisive, both as a policy economist and as a thought leader, he has made significant contributions to India's growth.

- LAVEESH BHANDARI

Shankar Acharya is undoubtedly a unique personality. Disarmingly affable yet ruthlessly incisive, both as a policy economist and as a thought leader, he has made significant contributions to India's growth. Over a period of eight years, as the chief economic advisor, he played a pivotal role in helping shape economic policies that have propelled India from being a laggard economy to the forefront of economic growth globally. This success, no doubt, cannot be ascribed to any one person but a whole group of policymakers. The era was interesting; bureaucrats and politicians had to take decisions that were risky both politically and administratively. Economists, many of whom are contributors to this volume, had to navigate multiple pressures, balancing the immediate with the long term. And in all of this, Dr Acharya was playing a role few could have played, balancing multi-fold pressures and, more importantly, actively contributing to the most important period in modern Indian economic history.