Don't write my obit yet: Rajan

Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan on Wednesday said it was not time to write his obituary yet.

He said he would remain in his job till September and visit India regularly even after he moves to the US to teach. “I read these obituaries in the paper, I’m still alive. I will be leaving this office in September but I will certainly be coming in and out of the country on numerous occasions. I will be reading and writing and speaking at several occasions,” Rajan said at an event.

The RBI governor had on Saturday announced his intention of not seeking a second term as the central bank governor.

“In the last few days, I’ve read a lot of my obituaries and I’m still here for two-and-a-half months in this job,” said Rajan. “I’ll be still around somewhere in the world, probably a lot in India. So don’t write me off.”

He also said angel and venture capital investments in Indian start-ups had grown more than 40 times in five years, emerging as a good alternative to banks, whose mandate was to lend with collateral than to risky ventures.

“Something like 30-40 times what was available in 2011 is available today. So that combined with a few successes where people take some of these firms to the market and will make a killing will make more people invest in all this,” Rajan said. “But unfortunately my sense is that it won’t be the banks that will invest as much. Banks will lend to the kirana shops, but they’re not going to lend to fancy hi-tech ventures.”

The RBI governor said globally banks tend not to lend to start-ups as these have little to show in terms of collateral when seeking money. However, it was important to ensure that multiple alternative investment sources were available for start-ups to build strong businesses.

Rajan said bankers traditionally shy away from high-risk ventures.