Who is Gita Gopinath, Indian-origin econom who quit top IMF post?

Indian-American econom Gita Gopinath, who is serving as the first deputy managing director at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), announced that she is stepping down from her position and returning to her academic career. In a social media post, Gopinath said that she is rejoining Harvard University as an economics professor.
“After nearly 7 amazing years at the IMF, I have decided to return to my academic roots,” Gopinath, the first female chief econom in IMF hory, said in a post on X.
The Indian-origin econom will step down from her position at IMF in August, and rejoin the Harvard Economics Department on September 1 as the inaugural Gregory and Ania Coffey Professor of Economics.
Story continues below this ad

Who is Gita Gopinath?
Gita Gopinath is an Indian-American econom, currently serving as the the first deputy managing director at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) since January 21, 2022. Gopinath was born in Kolkata in 1971. She holds an economics degree from the Delhi School of Economics and also from Delhi University. She then moved to the United States to pursue her MA degree from the University of Washington. She later earned her PhD from Princeton University.
Gopinath joined the IMF in January 2019 as chief econom and was promoted to the post of first deputy managing director in January 2022. Prior to joining the IMF, Gopinath was the John Zwaanstra Professor of International Studies and of Economics at Harvard University’s economics department from 2005 to 2022.
Before joining Harvard, she was an assant professor of economics at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business from 2001 to 2005.
IMF Managing Director Kralina Georgieva described Gopinath as an “outstanding colleague—an exceptional intellectual leader, dedicated to the mission and members of the Fund, and a fabulous manager, always showing genuine care for the professional standing and wellbeing of our staff.”Story continues below this ad
Gopinath also co-authored the ‘Pandemic Plan’ on how to end the COVID-19 crisis, a contribution which has widely been hailed as filling an important global gap setting targets to vaccinate the world at feasible cost, Georgieva said.
(With inputs from PTI)