It is unfortunate how so few Finance Ministers and other policy makers understand, let alone accept, the monetarist paradox. If there is one enduring idea from Friedman that central bankers in emerging economies such as China and India would be well advised to heed, it is that almost every interest rate cut leads, over time, to a higher interest rate. (Moorthy 2007)

The perennial discussions about and clamour for more Reserve Bank of India (RBI) autonomy have become more frequent and heated. Further, they have spread far and wide among the general public due to the controversy about Governor Raghuram Rajan’s extension and culmi­nating in the search for his successor. Against this backdrop, former RBI Governor Duvvuri Subbarao’s plea for more RBI auto­nomy in his recent book calls for a careful and detailed scrutiny and assessment.