Abstract

Barely two months into his second term, President Trump has hit the ground running threatening tariffs on imports from countries whose policies he believes are hurting America’s growth and prosperity. His first targets were China, Mexico and Canada but he has also decried India’s heavy tariff and non-tariff barriers and threatened ‘reciprocal tariffs’ unless India responds with corrective action.

The Trump threats come at a difficult time for India. The Indian economy rebounded sharply from the Covid dip, but over the last one year, there have been growing concerns about whether it can maintain the growth momentum because of both domestic and global headwinds.

Dr Subbarao will kickstart the seminar by laying out the big picture on how Trump policies might affect India and Asia. The objective of the seminar is to generate a freewheeling discussion on future possibilities.

About the Speaker

Duvvuri Subbarao served as Governor of the Reserve Bank of India for five years (2008-13). Prior to that, he was Finance Secretary to the Government of India (2007-08) and Secretary to the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council (2005-07).

As a career civil servant in India for over three decades and as a lead economist in the World Bank for five years, Subbarao acquired vast hands-on experience in public finance management.

Subbarao holds a Masters Degree in Physics from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur. He studied Economics at the Ohio State University and later at MIT. He has a PhD in Economics from the Andhra University.

After stepping down from the Reserve Bank, Subbarao has been a Visiting Felow at several universities around the world including the National University of Singapore and the Nanyang Technological University.