The International Monetary Fund, on Friday, appointed former Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor Raghuram Rajan and 11 others to its external advisory group to provide perspectives from around the globe on policy issues, including financial help aimed at curbing the COVID-19 pandemic.

57-year old Rajan, who served as RBI Governor till September 2016, is currently working as a professor at the University of Chicago.

However, Rajan’s role at the IMF will not be limited to suggesting measures directed only to containing COVID-19, he will also give his inputs on complex policy issues confronting the world

According to Georgieva even before the spread of COVID-19 and the dramatic health, economic and financial disruptions, it has brought, International Monetary Fund ( IMF) members confronted a rapidly evolving world and complex policy issues.

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“To serve our membership well in this context, we need top-notch input and expertise from the widest range of sources, inside and outside the Fund,” she said.

It is an informal group to suggest the IMF with a policy perspective. Besides Raja, the members of the group include Kevin Rudd, former prime minister of Australia; Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, former finance minister of Nigeria and longtime World Bank official;· Kristin Forbes, professor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and former White House economic adviser and Mark Malloch-Brown, former United Nations deputy secretary-general.

Rajan has earlier served as chief economist at IMF from 2003 to 2007.