Rakesh Mohan joins Yale

Says no Indian university offered job.

Former Reserve Bank of India deputy governor Rakesh Mohan, who had been appointed as faculty with the prestigious Yale University, today said he was not offered a teaching job by any Indian university.

“None of the Indian universities offered me to join as a professor. When one of the top dozen universities sends you a call, you do not deny,” he said, when asked about why he did not think of teaching in India.

Mohan added he would like to see India as the intellectual centre of the world in the coming years.

“At every point of time, there are particular intellectual centres, like it was Europe at some time and now it is the US. I hope to see India as the intellectual centre of the world in the coming years,” Mohan said. He added a great deal of work was going on in the Asian countries nowadays and hoped India would be able to revamp its higher education system.

“What is important from the country’s point of view is to build intellectual capacity. We can aim and hope that India becomes the intellectual centre of the world soon,” he said.

Speaking about the concept of ‘brain drain’ and ‘brain gain’, the economist said: “Today’s world is a global world and each country engages with the other. You never know brain drain or gain.”

Mohan has been appointed as professor in the Practice of International Economics and Finance in the Yale School of Management, and as a senior fellow in the Jackson Institute for Global Affairs at the Yale University.

“Mohan now joins the Yale faculty, which includes Tony Blair, Ernesto Zedillo and Rajendra Pachauri among other notable people,” George Jospeh, assistant secretary of the university, said.

Mohan has done his masters and Doctorate in Economics from Princeton University and graduation from Yale, besides a Bachelors of Science in Electrical Engineering from Imperial College of Science and Technology, University of London.

He is currently the non-executive vice-chairman of the Indian Institute of Human Settlements, and global advisor to the McKinsey Global Institute, McKinsey and Company.

In February, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had appointed Mohan the chairman of the multi-ministry National Transport Development Policy Committee to recommend transportation policy for India.

The economist will formally serve the faculty from July 1.