Subir Gokarn will make a suitable central bank governor: Former RBI chief D Subbarao

Subir Gokarn, who was one of the four deputy governors of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will make a good governor of the central bank, feels former RBI Governor D Subbarao.

"He (Subir Gokarn) will be a good RBI governor. He has worked with me and he is an outstanding macro economist, he is a good manager and is a very personable man, very equanimous personality," Subbarao said in an interview to the Economic Times about his new book, "Who Moved my Interest Rates."

Subir Gokarn's name has been doing the rounds as a possible candidate to replace Raghuram Rajan. Gokarn was appointed in November 2015 as executive director of one of the boards of the IMF. Since then he has been representing India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka.

Subbarao, who was the RBI governor from 2008-2013, during a period when the global financial crisis hit financial markets, also said that the RBI functions as an autonomous body and that the governor "all the time does what he believes is in the larger public interest."

Raghuram Rajan, India's present RBI Governor, had announced last month that he would return to academia once he completes his tenure on Sept. 4 this year. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had said Rajan's successor would be decided soon. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is yet to declare the name of the next central bank chief.

Soon afterwards, several names are being mentioned as contenders for the top job at RBI, including Vijay Kelkar, Ashok Lahiri, Arundhati Bhattacharya, Subir Gokarn, Urjit Patel and Ashok Chawla. Also, Arvind Panagariya, the vice-chairman of Niti Aayog, has also been considered a possible contender. He has been called a dark horse in the race to replace Rajan.