A V Rajwade: This foreign exchange wizard gave sage advice to policymakers

Business Standard columnist for years, this foreign exchange wizard provided policymakers, RBI governors sage advice

A V Rajwade’s passing away on Friday night is the end of an era: He was a financial journalist whose columns — he wrote for Business Standard for many years — were known for their intellectual honesty, a razor-sharp insight, and for never mincing their words.

His writing was pithy and plain-speaking. His readers, many of whom were dedicated fans, included the high and mighty policymakers as well as practitioners, both young and old. Once when Rajwade lamented that he lost a large collection of his writings in the Mumbai floods, someone from the Prime Minister’s Office promptly sent all