“Wait for my book,” former chief economic adviser Arvind Subramanian had told the media when they—as indeed the whole nation—wanted to know if he knew about Prime Minister Narendra Modi's demonetisation idea before the nation was informed about it.
We may get an answer to that question, come November, when his book, Of Counsel: The Challenges of the Modi-Jaitely Economy will be out.
Incidentally, Gita Gopinath, who resigned from the post of the economic adviser to the chief minister of Kerala on Thursday to take charge as the chief economist at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), said she "would not suggest demonetisation to any country".
According to the publisher, the Penguin Random House India, Subramanian provides "an inside account of his roller-coaster journey as the CEA to the government of India from 2014 to 2018". His part-memoir, part-analytical writings candidly reveal the numerous triumphs and challenges of policy making, said the publisher.
In fact, what singled out Subramanian as the CEA was the way he transformed the annual economic surveys by a breezy style that made it readable. He also threw in a lot of ideas, many of them ahead of their times. The Universal Basic Income is an example. He also presented the survey every year, at all kinds of public fora.
Subramanian resigned from the post in June, when he still had months to go, citing family reasons—particularly, the birth of his grand daughter.
The book is said to be "a deep dive into the man, the moments, the measures and the means".
According to the publisher, in the book, Subramanian opens up about his tenure and critically expands on his previous articles and essays.
Subramanian is currently a visiting lecturer of public policy at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government and a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.
