Prof. Krishnamurthy Subramanian, a highly acclaimed expert in banking and monetary policy and corporate governance, is the newly appointed 17th Chief Economic Advisor (CEA) to the Government of India. Considering his stellar academic contributions, publications and prolific commentaries on contemporary economic issues in leading dailies such as The Economic Times, Mint, The Indian Express and The Financial Express, his selection for the highly coveted role is regarded as an
extremely 'thoughtful choice'. After brief stints with industry in various management roles, he obtained his PhD in Financial Economics and joined academics. Since 2010, he has been associated with the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad. Hailed as one of chief architects of the Indian banking reforms and other path-breaking research with a significant societal impact, he was named ISB's inaugural Alumni Endowment Research Fellow in 2014.
"It has been quite revealing for me to observe how strong a democracy we have where processes do not depend on individuals."
Prof. Subramanian completed his B.Tech. in electrical engineering from IIT Kanpur in 1994. After a three-year stint at Tata Consultancy Services as a senior Analyst and manager, he joined IIM Calcutta to pursue his MBA in Finance. At IIM Calcutta, he won the Exide India and BPL India Prizes for outstanding overall performances, the IIM Director's medal for "Most Progressive Outlook to Management Problems", and was placed in the Institute's Roll of Honor for being a top ranker in his batch.
From April 1999 to August 2001, he served in a management role in the research group at ICICI Ltd. and was the executive assistant to Chairman, FIMMDA (Fixed Income Money Market and Derivatives Association of India). In 2001, he joined the Booth School of Business at the University of Chicago to pursue a PhD in Financial Economics under the guidance of Prof. Luigi Zingales and Prof. Raghuram Rajan. Prof. Subramanian's PhD dissertation titled 'Boundary Decisions & Financing choices in Human Capital Intensive Firms' earned him the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation Dissertation Fellowship that recognizes the top 15 PhD dissertations across all disciplines every year. It also won him the Outstanding PhD Student Award by the American Finance Association (AFA).
Prof. Subramanian started his academic career with the Goizueta Business School, Emory University, USA as an Assistant Professor of Finance in September 2005. In 2010, he returned to India and joined the Indian School of Business, one of the world's leading B-schools, where he continues to serve as an Associate Professor of Finance and Executive Director of the Centre for Analytical Finance. He has also been a Visiting Associate Professor of Finance at the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, USA.
Prof. Subramanian's key areas of research include banking & monetary policy, corporate governance, banking regulation, bankruptcy, innovation & entrepreneurship, law and finance, and emerging markets. His scholarly works have been published in some of the leading journals, including The Review of Financial Studies, The Journal of Financial Economics, The Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, and The Journal of Law and Economics. Since 2015, he has been serving as the Associate Editor of the Financial Management & Journal of Corporate Finance. Owing to his seminal contributions in shaping the Indian banking sector and other path-breaking research with a significant societal impact, he was named ISB's inaugural Alumni Endowment Research Fellow in 2014.
Prof. Subramanian has an extensive experience in the field of public policy and corporate governance. He has served on the boards of Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI); Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Academy; Bandhan Bank, the first bank to be licensed after independence in eastern India; and the National Institute of Bank Management. He is a regular columnist in some of the leading publications and frequently appears as an expert commentator on various media channels.
In December 2018, Prof. K. Subramanian was appointed as the 17th Chief Economic Advisor to the Government of India for a period of three years. On his appointment, Prof. Rajendra Srivastava, dean, ISB said, "Professor Subramanian has been a very active contributor to ISB's intellectual environment since he joined us in 2009. This is a very prestigious appointment which allows a bright, young academic like Subbu to actively help shape the economic policy of the country." In his new role, Prof. Subramanian would be primarily responsible for providing policy inputs on industrial development and foreign trade, conducting analysis of trends in industrial production and releasing statistical information on key economic indicators.
He is the recipient of the prestigious IITK Distinguished Alumnus Award 2019.
