It was three years before the sub-prime mortgage crisis of 2008, which took down with it the global economy, that Raghuram Rajan rung the first warning bells. Today, as the Indian economy continues to flounder, Rajan, who has been a popular choice of many, takes charge as the 23rd governor of the Reserve Bank of India.

His work is cut out – ideating and implementing damage-control measures – and he doesn’t plan to waste any time.

On Wednesday, Rajan announced his arrival at the helm of affairs on Mint Street in style. In his opening remarks as the new governor of the apex bank, he made it clear that besides the primary role of ensuring stability of the rupee, the apex bank was also committed to bringing about inclusive growth and financial stability, something that critics of Subbarao said he had overlooked.

Rajan, credited to possess the ability of going ahead with bold reforms, did show a trailer of this when he announced doing away with the existing norm of banks seeking RBI’s nod for opening new branches, effectively boosting priority sector lending, rupee internationalisation (involving more settlement in rupee for international trade transactions) and liberalising banking besides talking about a few other reforms.

(Read full speech of Dr Raghuram Rajan here)

Promising to bring in important changes to ensure the survival of the economy to keep up with the ever-changing dynamics of global economy, Rajan’s speech provides a glimmer of hope at a time when the reforms process has slowed down and is negatively impacting growth.

Analysts have attributed the sluggishness of the economy to the discord between the finance ministry and the former RBI governor, D Subbarao. The cracks had remained below the surface for long and emerged in the last couple of months bringing more volatility into the economy.

(Also read: Mobile banking, Aadhaar high on Rajan's agenda)

For an economy to remain strong and continue to grow, it is very important for the central bank and the government to work in tandem. Differences in opinion are bound to exist on ways of doing things but the goal has to remain the same. With Rajan’s appointment, this problem looks set to be resolved, considering his proximity to finance minister P Chidambaram.

However, an interesting point to note is that the new RBI governor has clarified that he will not allow anyone to take him for a ride, and that his decisions will only be guided by fundamentals of economics instead of popularity chasing. “Any entrant to the central bank governorship probably starts at the height of their popularity. Some of the actions I take will not be popular. The Governorship of the Central Bank is not meant to win one votes or Facebook ‘likes’,” he said.

The list of challenges that stare at the economy right now is exhaustive and fairly known to all. Like Subbarao, Rajan has assumed office at an exciting time. It will be very interesting to watch what the new RBI governor, whose claim to fame is the prediction of the 2008 economic crisis (when no one believed its possibility) will do, given that he doesn’t possess a magic wand to shoo away the ills.

Over to you, Mr Rajan.