Generating jobs: Rahul Gandhi seeks ideas from Raghuram Rajan

Congress president Rahul Gandhi has sought ideas from several experts on employment generation and agriculture, as his party gets ready for preparing its manifesto for the 17th Lok Sabha elections and build the 2019 poll campaign around the two themes. Gandhi, who refers to unemployment in all his speeches, has spoken with former RBI governor Raghuram Rajan twice in the past few days, one of which was during his recent trip to the UAE. According to Congress sources, Rajan has sent a note to Gandhi on tackling unemployment.

Rajan was the UPA-II’s chief economic advisor from August 2012 to September 2013, before he was appointed RBI governor. After his RBI term ended in September 2016, he moved to the US to teach finance at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business. Congress manifesto committee chief P Chidambaram has till now held several consultations with academia, industry, farmers, small businessmen, youth and women.

Chidambaram was in Varanasi last Saturday to meet 300-odd intellectuals and people from different sections of society. In November, he discussed the economic situation with CII and FICCI representatives while seeking inputs for manifesto.