Much Advice, More Dissent
Jairam Ramesh
ADVICE AND DISSENT: MY LIFE IN PUBLIC SERVICE by Y.V. Reddy HarperCollins, 2017, 552 pp., 799
December 2017, volume 41, No 12

Y.V. Reddy or Venu Reddy as he is generally known, has had a distinguished civil service career. He held important assignments in the undivided Andhra Pradesh, in the Commerce and Finance Ministries in New Delhi, in the World Bank in Washington and, of course in Mumbai as the Governor of the Reserve Bank of India where he had a momentous tenure. His final assignment was as Chairman of the Fourteenth Finance Commission whose recommendations were to completely change Centre-State financial relations from 2015 onward. In between, he took time off to complete his doctorate and was an academic as well for a while. Thus, here was a policy practioner grounded solidly  in theory as well. Advice and Dissent is a fascinating chronicle of his life in public service. Over the decades, he certainly gave a lot of advice and very frequently dissented as well. The story he has to tell is therefore extraordinarily rich in detail.

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