The unusual side of RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan

RBI governor Raghuram Rajan's first monetary policy review may not have gone down well with the equity and currency markets, but his post-policy press conference showed a side that is unusual for governors. Perhaps the academic in him likes to call a spade a space. Or because he wanted to project a persona comfortable with on all things monetary. Here are four instances of straight-of-the-bat responses by India's youngest RBI governor:

-On CRR/ Daily CRR maintenance by banks: Let me emphasize that this (CRR issue) is peanuts in the larger scheme of things, so the amount of attention which has gone to this particular issue I think is unwarranted.

-On when asked he'd be comfortable in answering in Hindi: I  made a promise that  I will do a full fledged interview in Hindi  a year from now, but given where market conditions are , I would prefer English.

-On the prospect of QE tapering:  How many times should we prepare for tapering… Isn't once enough… I am going to stop anticipating tapering at this point and look at fixing what we need to fix here.

- On asset bubbles building up due to easy money policy in the US: To some extent all investment is an act of speculation.