Former Chief Economic Adviser Krishnamurthy Subramanian on Friday claimed that reciting the Hindu hymn Hanuman Chalisa helped a student get admission to a US university.
Subramanian had served as India’s chief economic advisor from 2018 to 2021. He is currently the executive director of the International Monetary Fund.
On Friday, Subramanian wrote on Twitter that the student had been named on the waitlist at two universities.
“Just intuitively, I recommended both the kid and his father to chant together the Hanuman Chalisa every day…” Subramanian wrote. “To their credit, they both chanted diligently every day and now the kid has made it to both the universities, which about a couple of months before looked extremely improbable.”
In another tweet, he said that people often confuse scholarship and faith as substitutes when they are, according to him, compliments to each other.
“For example, till I wrote any exam or undertook any task, I worked hard as if everything was in my control,” he said. “After I had finished the exam/task, I prayed as if everything was in the almighty’s hand, not in my hand anymore.”
Prior to his stint as the chief economic advisor, he served as an associate professor at the Indian School of Business in Hyderabad. He is also an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology and the Indian Institute of Management and has a PhD from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
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