Subhash Garg explains why RBI's surplus profits belong to the govt

Over lunch with Arup Roychoudhury, Garg talks about his two years as finance secretary as the government went into an unprecedented confrontation with the Reserve Bank of India

Former Finance Secretary Subhash Garg is one of those lucky Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers whose home cadre and home state are the same. In Garg's case, Rajasthan is both. So, we decide to meet at a Rajasthani restaurant in Hotel Ashok. While I am on my way, Garg calls and says he has called the reservations and found that the restaurant was shut a few weeks earlier. As an alternative, we decide upon the Frontier Restaurant, also in Hotel Ashok.

The restaurant is unlike Garg or I have ever seen — while it is well lit, the interior