CEA Arvind quits FinMin

Cites pressing family commitments in US as the reason

Chief economic adviser Arvind Subramanian will be leaving the finance ministry after nearly four years because of “pressing family commitments” and return to the US, Union minister Arun Jaitley said on Wednesday.

Mr Subramanian was appointed to the finance ministry on October 16, 2014, for a period of three years. In 2017, his term was extended by a year.

“Few days ago chief economic adviser Arvind Subramanian met me over video conferencing. He informed me that he would like to go back to the United States on account of pressing family commitments. His reasons were personal but extremely important for him. He left me with no option but to agree with him,” Mr Jaitley wrote in a Facebook post.

The minister, however, did not say as to when Mr Subramanian will relinquish the office.

“Profoundly grateful & humbled by these extraordinarily generous words by Minister @arunjaitley announcing my decision to return-for personal reasons-to researching & writing. CEA job most rewarding, fulfilling, exciting I have ever had. Many many to thank,” Mr Subramanian tweeted minutes after Mr Jaitley’s Facebook post.

Mr Subramanian was the Dennis Weatherstone Senior Fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics and Senior Fellow at the Centre for Global Development in the US before joining the ministry. Mr Jaitley further said that on expiry of Mr Subramanian’s three year term in October last year, he had requested him to continue for some more time.

“Even at that stage he told me that he was torn between family commitment and his current job which he considered the best and most fulfilling he has ever done,” the minister said.

Mr Jaitley, who was the finance minister before undergoing a kidney transplant surgery in midMay, also thanked Mr Subramanian for his contribution to macro economic management of Indian economy.

“Personally I will miss his dynamism, energy, intellectual ability and ideas. He would walk into my room — at times several times a day, addressing me as minister to give either the good news or otherwise. Needless to say his departure will be missed by me.

Profoundly grateful to the minister for announcing my decision to return to the United States. CEA job most rewarding, fulfilling, exciting I have ever had. ARVIND SUBRAMANIAN, CEA

He conceptualised JAM as a data base for availing public benefits. He contributed to the debate of federalism by conceptualising that the Indian federalism has not merely to be cooperative but also competitive. ARUN JAITLEY, finance minister