Born on December 8, 1971 in Kolkata, Gita Gopinath is the first Deputy Managing Director at the International Monetary Fund (IMF). She was raised in a middle class and typical South Indian family. She was born amid the political turmoil of Bangladesh’s war of 1971. Little did anyone know that she would establish a foothold to propose methods of revitalising economic support at the professional front.
Flashing back to her school days, her father recalls an average schoolgirl, who was more inclined towards athletics than to academics. However, during the gradual progression to senior classes, she leaned more towards studies. He iterates the sudden prance in her academic grades, as she advent on unveiling her true potential. She completed her schooling from Nirmala Convent School in Mysore, a city to which her family relocated during her early years. Her adaptive nature is perceptible from her resilient outlook in life. She is multilingual, with familiarisation in American English and other regional Indian languages like Kannada and Malayalam. Now a leading macroeconomist, she earlier completed her undergraduate education from Lady Shriram College for Women (B.A in economics), followed by her masters from Delhi School of Economics. She got married to Iqbal Singh Dhaliwal in 1999, who was her classmate during the Masters programme. The couple has one child named Rohil Singh Dhaliwal.
Gita Gopinath went on to pursue her Ph.D. form the University of Washington. Startled by her academic vigour and inquisitiveness about economic scenarios, her professor wrote a letter of recommendation for her, highlighting that the university had not had such an exceptional student in two decades, to attend Harvard or Princeton. Post this referral, she was admitted to Princeton and completed her Ph.D. in International Macroeconomics and Trade in 2001. After the completion of her course, she was advised by her mentors to relocate to the USA, as they potentially foresaw her many future contributions lined up.
Given her pragmatically oriented approach and eminent economic reasoning, she was appointed as the economic advisor of the chief minister of Kerela in 2016. She is also a consultant member of the Federal Reserve, the central bank of the United States of America.
Interestingly, Gita landed in as a tenured economics professor at Harvard University, a school to which she was earlier recommended as a student. Earlier this year (January 2022), she was all set to return to the prestigious university after stepping down as the Chief Economist at the IMF. However, amid the economic uncertainty abounding the world as repercussion of Russia-Ukraine war and the pandemic, the vitality for her to contribute to the global economy, through her experience and prowess, was heightened. On January 21, 2022, she was promoted as the first Deputy Managing Director at the international body after serving as the first Indian female Chief Economist for four consecutive years.
She manifested her spark to contribute to the society and inject economic stability. Her intellect, coupled with her fervent ambition to excel, has landed her amongst the top leadership clan at the International Monetary Fund, enabling her to closely monitor the development indices of different countries and analysing and extrapolating growth trends. As a senior official at the Fund, she overlooks research figures, stresses international cooperation, maintains relationship with government members across the globe and presents reasoned economic assumptions for future economic boom or downturn. In addition, she takes charge of economic podcasts, interviews and media coverage.
Enthralled by her professional areas of focus, she has articulated and documented her analysis in several reports, research papers and books. Typically, her research spans from macroeconomic and financial spheres to global economy and cross-border trade. Lately, she concentrated her research to the recent, grotesque COVID scenario to put forth alleviation and mitigation tactics.
As an avid individual, who has remarkably contributed through her expertise, Gita is accredited with numerous awards, namely, ‘Top 25 Economists under 45’, ‘Top Global Thinkers by Foreign Policy’, ‘Distinguished Alumnus Award’ from the University of Washington and was among ’21 Most Influential Women of 2021’ by Financial Times. Additionally, her eminent cognitive abilities and benefaction to her professional field pocketed her the ‘Pravasi Bharatiya Samman’ award by the President of India. This is the highest token of recognition for overseas Indians.
She nurtures familial bonds, nobility, reasonability and prefers simplicity over extravagance, claims her father.
An influential figure and role model for young aspirants, Gita continues to enlighten everyone with her cognizant economic counsel and comprehension of the world economy. She drives women to the allure of being financially independent and reducing dependency on their male counterparts.
By Asees Kanwar
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