Gita Gopinath- Kolkata born woman shining at the international stage

Gita Gopinath added another feather to her cap after getting appointed as the first deputy managing director of IMF.

On Thursday (2 December 2021), the International Monetary Fund (IMF) appointed Gita Gopinath as the first deputy managing director, which is the second-highest position in the international institution.

At present, the post of first deputy managing director of IMF is held by Geoffrey Okamoto. Gopinath shall take over as the FDMD next year, on 21 January 2022.

“I believe that Gita – universally recognized as one of the world’s leading macroeconomists – has precisely the expertise that we need for the FDMD [first deputy managing director] role at this point,” remarked Kristalina Georgieva, IMF MD.

In 2018, Gita was appointed as the chief economist of IMF, becoming the first woman to hold this position at IMF. In this role, she acts as the economic counsellor of the IMF and director of its research department. Before this, she had also served as the co-director of the International Finance and Macroeconomics program at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER).

Born in 1971 in Kolkata, Gita Gopinath is the younger of the two daughters of TV Gopinath and VC Vijayalakshmi. She did her schooling at Mysore’s Nirmala Convent school and earned her BA from Delhi University’s Lady Shri Ram College for Women and an MA degree in economics from Delhi School of Economics. Later, she pursued an MA degree at the University of Washington in 1996 and went on to earn her PhD in economics from Princeton University, where she received the Woodrow Wilson Fellowship Research Award.

Gita Gopinath was featured in IMF’s ‘top 25 economists under 45’ in 2014 and was selected as one of the ‘25 Indians to Watch’ by the Financial Times in 2012. In 2011, World Economic Forum selected her as a Young Global Leader. The list of numerous awards and commendations received by her is exhausting.

This news comes soon after Indian origin Parag Agrawal was appointed as the CEO of microblogging giant Twitter, reiterating the fact that Indians are making waves around the world. Undoubtedly a highly efficient and capable leader at the global stage, Gita’s ascent at the IMF is a testament to this fact and has become an inspiration for many.