Economist Vivek Dehejia highlights a fundamental problem faced
by India and many other countries around the world:
“As I have
suggested, this reflects, I believe, a more fundamental dysfunction, or
malaise, in the Indian political economy: individual discretion is privileged
at the expense of a rule-governed institution which functions reasonably well
regardless of the individual who sits in the chair. (Of course, brilliant
individuals can make a difference, but they should not be indispensable for the
system to function at all.) This characterizes not just the RBI, obviously, but
every government department and agency and lower levels of government, too—to
say nothing of many non-governmental institutions such as universities, think
tanks and private sector firms—which function well, or not at all, depending on
who happens to be leading them.”