New Delhi, Dec. 10 -- Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown," wrote Shakespeare in his play Henry IV. The English playwright was talking about a king by that name, not of any central bank governor. In any case, even the Bank of England was founded only in 1694, almost a century after that play was written.

A latter-day dramatist tempted to say the same of the head of a central bank would not be too far off the mark, though, whether it is about Jerome Powell, chairperson of the US Federal Reserve, who has had to face the prolonged ire of President Donald Trump, or anybody else with this unenviably difficult job.

What about the 26th governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)? Ever since techie-turned-bureaucrat Sanjay Malhotra took c...