Gita Gopinath the first Indian women to be elected as the Chief Economist of Indian Monetary Fund who has been serving in IMF since 2019.
Wiki/Biography
Gita Gopinath was born on 8 December 1971 (50 Years) in Kolkata, India in a Malayali family. She completed her schooling from Nirmala Convent School in Mysore. In 1992 she completed her graduation B.A. in Economics from Lady Shri Ram College for Women of University of Delhi and followed by her M.A. in economics from Delhi School of Economics of Delhi University in 1994. She completed her futhur M.A. degree from University of Washington in 1996 and in 2001 she completed her Ph.D in economics from Prince University. After completing her Ph.D Gita joined the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business as an assistant professor in 2001. After which Gita Gopinath also joined as the Professor of Economics department at Harvard University,USA where she is on leave for public service. In July 2018 Gita was invited for interview for the Chief Economist at the IMF which she cleared and was appointed as the Chief Economist of the IMF. She was the first Indian women to be elected as the Chief Economist of IMF and she is also the first Director of IMF’s Research adepartment and the Economic Counsellor of the Fund.
Gita Gopinath lives in America with her son and husband and keep visiting India to meet her parents.She has also got the citizenship of America. Gita Gopinath did a lot of research and her research was mainly on international finance and macroeconomics, published by several top economic journals.
Physical Appearance
Height (approx.): 5′ 6″
Weight (approx.): 60kg
Hair Colour: Black
Eye Colour: Black
Family
Gita is from a Hindu middle class Malayali family who lived in Kolkata and later when Gita was 9 years old shifted to Mysuru, Kerala. Gita often comes to India to meet her parents.
Parents & Siblings
Gita Gopinath’s father TV Gopinath is an agriculturist and he is the Vice President of “Raita Mitra” farmer producer company limited and mother VC Vijayalakshmi was a working women but she left her job and started her own playschool which she continued for more than 30 years. Gita has one elder sister Anita. Gita’s parents never implimented any kind of restrictions on them.
Gita Gopinath’s parents
Husband & Children
Gita’s husband Iqbal Singh Dhaliwal is the Global Executive Director at Abdul Ltif Jameel Poverty Action Lab at the Department of Economics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Iqbal and Gita were classmates in Delhi University. They both were preparing for UPSC exam. Iqbal cleared the exam as first rank holder in 1995 and became an IAS. He was posted in Tamilnadu Cadre, he served as an IAS for 5 years after which he left his job and moved to US. Gita and Iqbal got engagaed in 1997 and married in 1999. They live in America and they have a son Rohil Singh Dhaliwal who is 18 years old.
Gita Gopinath’s husband Iqbal and son Rohil
Career
As a Assistant Professor
Gita Gopinath after completing her Ph.D. she joined as an assistant professor of economics at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business in 2001.
As a Professor.
Gita Gopinath in 2005 joined the Havard University in US. She joined as the John Zwaanstra Professor of International Studies and of Economics at Harvard University. She is currently on leave of public service from the economics department to serve as the Chief Economist of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). According to the global financial institution Gita will join will leave her job in IMF in January 2022 and return to the prestigious Harvard University’s Economics Department. . She is the third woman and the second Indian to be made a permanent member of the economics department at Harvard.
Gita Gopinath as a Professor
Gita Gopinath mainly researches on International Fianace and Macroeconomics. She has written various articles on exchange rate, investment and trade.
As a Chief Economist of IMF
Gita Gopinath in july 2018 was invited for the interview of the chief economist. She cleared her interview and was appointed as the Chief economist of IMF. She is the first Indian women to be elected as the Chief Economist. She worked as the Economic Counsellor of the Fund, and Director of its Research Department for 3 years and now she has been promoted as the first Deputy Managing Director of IMF which is the second position in the organization.
Apart from this Gita Gopinath is the co-director of the International Finanaces and Macroeconomics program at the National Bureau of Economic Research.
As an Advisory
Gita Gopinath was the member of the economic advisory panel of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. She was also the Economic Adviser to the Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan of Kerala state (India).
Gita Gopinath was elected as the fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and of the Econometric Society. She has also been the editor of the International Economic Handbook and also has served as the co-editor of the American Economy.
Awards
- Gita Gopinath was awarded the Bhagwati Prize for the best paper published in the Journel of the International Economics in 2003 and 2004.
- Gita Gopinath has been awarded the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman which was supposed to be given by the President of India but due to some reason Gita was not able to come to India so this award was given at the Embassy of India Washington D.C. USA on 9May 2019.
Gita Gopinath recieving Pravasi Bhartiya Samman
- In 2017, Gita Gopinath received the Department of Economics Distinguished Alumnus Award from University of Washington.
- During her Ph.D. studies Gita Gopinath was awarded the Princeton Woodrow Wilson Fellowship Research Award for Doctoral Research at Princeton University.
Achievements
- Gita in 2014 was named as one of the top 25 economists by the Indian Monetary Fund.
- Gita was selected as a Young Global Leader (YGL) by the World Economic Forum in 2011.
- Gita Gopinath has been named as one of the 25most influential women of the year by the Financial Times in 2021.
- In 2020 Gita Gopinath was declared the Women of the year by Vogue India, Women of the Year 2020.
- The International Economic Association named Gita The Schumpeter-Haberler distinguished Fellow and the Agricultural & Applied Economics Association recognized her with the John Kenneth Galbraith Award, also the Carnegie Corporation named her among Great (American) Immigrants.
- She was named among the Bloomberg ‘50 People Who Defined 2019’, a ‘Top Global Thinker’ by Foreign Policy, and among the ‘Women who Broke Major Barriers to Become Firsts’ by Time Magazine.
- Gita Gopinath also met our Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Delhi on 24 december 2019.
Gita Gopinath with our Prime Minister Narendra Modi
Favourites
- Actor: Sharukh khan, Amitabh Bachan
- Actress: Deepika Padukone
- Sports: Cricket and Football
Facts/Trivia
- Gita Gopinath is the third woman and the second Indian after Nobel laureate Amartya Sen to be made a permanent member of the economics department at Harvard University.
- Gita Gopinath is a multi talented women. She has learned guitar and even paticipated in a Fashion show.
- Gita Gopinath was not good in studies in the begining because of her more interest in sports but the time she realised that it is easy to get success in studies than in sports she focused more on studies and she topped the college and got various medals.
- Apart from Hindi and English Gita can speak American English, Kannad and Malyali.
- Gita is also co-director of the International Finance and Macroeconomics program at the National Bureau of Economic Research.
- Before joining as the chief economist Gita was also a visiting scholar at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
- Gopinath is also a member of the economic advisory panel of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
- She is also the co-editor of the current Handbook of International Economics with former IMF economic counselor Kenneth Rogoff.
- After the Nobel laureate Amartya Sen, Gita Gopinath is the third woman and the second Indian to become a permanent member of the Harvard economics department.
- Gita Gopinath because of her intellectual leadership is the first woman to hold the post in IMF’s history for three years.