“My best years were in the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), as Deputy Governor and then the Governor. My 11-year-stint was the best period of my career,” smiles the ‘Little Master’ of Indian Banking, Yaga Venugopal Reddy.
An IAS officer and a top ranker, this economics student worked passionately-hard towards being an economist then pursue top bureaucratic positions. “As an officer, you need to have other interests or you could get bogged down. I chose to study economics as it involved mathematics, philosophy and human behaviour,” says the 75-year-old.
“I was uncomfortable in executive action as expectations from people were too much,” he recalls, hours before his biography in Telugu, ‘My Reflections’ or ‘Naa Gnapakalu’ in association with Aruna Pappu (Emesco Publications) was released.
In the 350-page book, Dr. Reddy traces his beginnings from Paturi village in Kadapa district, his education in Telugu medium, college in Chennai, onward to Hyderabad where he was a part-time lecturer in Osmania University, to getting selected to IAS to fulfil the wish of his father, also a civil servant. Eldest in the family, he recalls his days as Collector in different districts under officers like Dr. Abid Hussain, K.R. Venugopal and S.R. Sankaran and the qualities he imbibed. But at heart he was an economist and after a stint in the World Bank, he returned to join the NTR Government as Planning Secretary.
Dr. Reddy gives an interesting insight into the functioning of NTR as a Chief Minister, vis-a-vis with other CM’s like J. Vengal Rao. Of course, stints in the Finance Ministry during the crisis in 90-91, working in the apex bank, interacting with luminaries like Dr. C. Rangarajan and Dr. Bimal Jalan and the steps taken to protect and strengthen the economy makes for a riveting read.
He confesses avoiding controversial issues, personalities and frictions due to ‘moral issues’ and was determined to bring out his book first in Telugu to reach the common man. “But if you read with your mind and heart, you can read between lines,” he chortles.
Dr. Reddy is also in the finishing stages of book in English — ‘Advice & Dissent – My Life on Policy Making’ being published by Harper Collins, in March. Former Union Minister S. Jaipal Reddy launched the book. at the Centre for Economic and Social Studies (CESS), here.
