'No Santa Claus, I'm Raghuram Rajan and I do what I do'

Stakeholders across the spectrum were surprised by the higher-than-expected rate cut of 50 basis points announced on Tuesday by Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan but the classical banker himself declined he was being overtly generous.

"I don't know what you want to call me. Santa Claus? You want to call me a hawk? I don't know. I don't go by all these things. My name is Raghuram Rajan and I do what I do," the governor said in a lighter moment during his post-policy press conference here.

"I don't think we were throwing out a Diwali present," Rajan said, alluding he prefers to act as the situation demands and not get swayed by factors that don't merit attention.

"We want to make sure that the word sustainable and growth go together. Both are are important. And that's why we've used the room we had. I don't think we were excessively aggressive," said the former chief economist with the International Monetary Fund.