Power corridors are abuzz that Ms Poonam Gupta may be named as successor to Arvind Subramanian who resigned in the third week of June this year citing family reasons. In case, the information turns out to be true she would be country’s first woman Chief Economic Advisor (CEA). The post fell vacant after Subramanian made an exit almost eleven months ahead of his retirement.

Presently, she is lead economist for India at the World Bank. Prior to this she was the RBI Chair Professor at National Institute of Public Finance and Policy (NIPFP).

Reportedly, the search committee, headed by former RBI Governor Bimal Jalan, is considering several others namely; Sajjid Chinoy (JPMorgan), Krishnamurthy Subramanian (Professor at the Indian School of Business).