Duvvuri Subbarao (Subba)

Dr. Duvvuri Subbarao served as Governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for five years (2008-13). Prior to that, he was Finance Secretary to the Government of India (2007-08) and Secretary to the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council (2005-07).

Subbarao joined the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) in 1972, topping the highly competitive civil services entry examination in that year. As a career civil servant, he worked in various positions in the state government of Andhra Pradesh and in the federal government of India. He was a Lead Economist in the World Bank (1999 – 2004).

Subbarao got a Masters in Physics from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur (1972) and Masters in Economics from the Ohio State University (1978). Subsequently, he studied public finance as a Humphrey Fellow at MIT (1982-83). He got a PhD in Economics from Andhra University for his dissertation on ‘Fiscal Reforms at the Subnational Level’.

Subbarao was alternate governor for India on the Governing Boards of both the World Bank and the IMF. As Finance Secretary to Government of India and later as Governor of RBI, he participated in G-20 meetings, and the meetings of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), the Financial Stability Board (FSB) and the Basel Committee for Banking Standards (BCBS).

Subbarao’s book “Who Moved My Interest Rate” chronicling his experiences in leading the Reserve Bank of India through five turbulent year is best known for the way he explained the policy dilemmas and challenges facing an emerging economy central bank in a globalized world.

After stepping down as Governor, RBI, Subbarao was a Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the National University of Singapore (2014-18), and most recently at the University of Pennsylvania (2019-20). At both universities, his speaking and writing covered global economy and finance, Indian economy, central banking, public finance management and leadership lessons.