6 months of tenure left, Govt recalls Subramanian from IMF board
Six months ahead of the end of his three-year term as the International Monetary Fund's Executive Director, Krishnamurthy V Subramanian has been called back to India by the government, sources have confirmed to The Indian Express.
The government is looking for his replacement to be nominated to the IMF Board, sources said.
The reasons for his exit have not been officially announced. Sources said Subramanian is learnt to have raised questions about IMF's datasets, which did not go down well in the corridors of the Washington-headquartered multilateral agency. Additionally, sources said, concerns were flagged over an 'alleged impropriety' relating to the promotion and publicity of his latest book India @ 100.
Subramanian, who was earlier Chief Economic Adviser, was nominated as IMF's ED by the government in August 2022 for a three-year term beginning November 1, 2022.
Queries sent to Subramanian, the IMF and the Ministry of Finance by The Indian Express on this issue did not elicit a response.
In February 2025, Subramanian, along with his two senior advisors at the IMF, had termed the weighted approach to rating by the IMF staff as skewed, misleading and going against the spirit of 'transparency,' 'objectivity' and 'even-handedness.'
As per the IMF's website, Subramanian's name appeared as IMF's ED till May 2. As of May 3, the IMF has now marked the position of ED for India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, and Sri Lanka as 'vacant'.
Harishchandra Pahath Kumbure Gedara is listed as the Director Alternate for the South Asia region.
On May 2, Subramanian was scheduled to speak at a conference titled 'Investing Opportunities in India' organised by DoorDarshi Advisors' in Omaha, Nebraska in the US. A day earlier, the organisers posted on X that Subramanian has had an exigency and won't be able to join the event.
The premature exit of Subramanian from the IMF's ED post comes ahead of the crucial IMF Board meeting on May 9, which is to be held to review financing facilities extended to Pakistan.
At the meeting, India is going to oppose funding to its neighbouring country for terror financing in the backdrop of the attack carried out in Pahalgam on April 22 that killed 26 tourists.
Most Executive Directors have got an extended term at IMF earlier. Before Subramanian, economist Surjit Bhalla was selected by the government for the post of IMF ED in October 2019 for a three-year period. Bhalla joined the IMF Executive Board in November 2019 and was then re-elected in the next electoral cycle for the two-year period from November 1, 2020 to October 31, 2022.
As per the IMF, the Executive Board is responsible for conducting the day-to-day business of the IMF. It is composed of 24 executive directors, who are elected by member-countries or by groups of countries, and the managing director, who serves as its chairman. The Board usually meets several times each week.
All IMF member-countries are represented on its Executive Board, which discusses the national, regional, and global consequences of each member's economic policies and approves IMF financing to help member-countries address temporary balance of payments problems, as well as overseeing the IMF's capacity development efforts.
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