How can India (and developing countries) grow?

Raghuram Rajan: How can India (and developing countries) grow? Navigating an automating and protectionist world

UC Santa Cruz Chancellor Cynthia Larive and Foundation Board Trustee Anuradha Luther Maitra invite you to the Sidhartha Maitra Memorial Lecture.

Please join us for the 2025 Sidhartha Maitra Memorial Lecture featuring Raghuram Rajan.

India is at a crossroads today. Its economic growth rate, while respectable relative to other large countries, is too low for the jobs its youth need. The East Asian path of manufacturing-led exports no longer seems feasible—aside from increasing automation in manufacturing, the world isn’t prepared or right for another export-driven economy like China. India broke away from the standard development path—from agriculture to low-skilled manufacturing, then high-skilled manufacturing and, finally, services—a long time back by leapfrogging the intermediate steps.

Instead of now trying to regress to development paths that may no longer be feasible, Dr. Rajan will lay out an alternative path to accelerate economic development and make India a ferment of ideas and creativity. By breaking from the past and looking to the future, India can craft a truly Indian way, a path that could be emulated by other developing countries.

Speaker

Raghuram Rajan

Raghuram Rajan is the Katherine Dusak Miller Distinguished Service Professor of Finance at the University of Chicago’s Booth School. He was the Governor of the Reserve Bank of India between 2013 and 2016, Vice-Chairman of the Board of the Bank for International Settlements (2015–16) and Chief Economist at the International Monetary Fund (2003–06).

Dr. Rajan’s book Fault Lines (2010) won the Financial Times prize for best business book and his book The Third Pillar: How Markets and the State Hold the Community Behind (2019) was a finalist for the award. His most recent book (December 2023) is Breaking the Mold: India’s Untraveled Path to Prosperity, with Rohit Lamba.

Dr. Rajan received AFA’s inaugural Fischer Black Prize in 2003, the Deutsche Bank Prize for financial economics in 2013, Euromoney magazine’s Central Banker of the Year award in 2014, and The Banker magazine's Global Central Banker award in 2016.

Moderator

Raghuram Rajan

Anuradha Luther Maitra received her Ph.D. in Economics from Stanford University, and has served UC Santa Cruz in many capacities: Professor of Economics, Special Advisor to the Chancellor on International Initiatives, UC Santa Cruz Foundation Trustee and President, and founder of the Sidhartha Maitra Lecture Series on Humanism, Reason, and Tolerance.

This premier campus event series seeks to enrich the intellectual life of the campus and the community, and is made possible thanks to the Sidhartha Maitra Memorial Lecture endowment.

Questions? Please contact the University Events Office at specialevents@ucsc.edu.