Michael Sandel: The man RBI governor Raghuram Rajan introduced to a graduating class

Last Saturday, RBI governor Raghuram Rajan handed out the diplomas to the graduating class of 2015 at the Dhirubhai Ambani International School. In his remarks, Rajan quoted Michael Sandel, an American political philosopher, stressing on proper understanding and appreciation of the role that markets and money play in a democratic society.

Sandel is widely considered a public intellectual, concerned with injecting morality back into capitalism. A theme Rajan is also believed to endorse. Apart from their common beliefs, here are a few things you should know about Sandel.

Claim to fame

For over 30 years, Sandel has been teaching his popular undergraduate course 'Justice', at Harvard. The course, dealing with moral and political philosophy, draws over 1,000-plus students each year and is also the first Harvard course to be made freely available online.

Brush with journalism

As a student, Sandel interned at The Houston Chronicle in Washington and covered the Watergate hearings as a cub reporter. As a high school student he also had a chance to interview Ronald Reagan, then California governor.

Fodder for fiction

The character of Montgomery Burns, the evil businessman in The Simpsons, is rumoured to be modelled on Sandel. Many of the show's writers are Harvard alumni and this is considered something of an in-joke: likening the character to its supposed real life inspiration in physical aspects but being polar opposites ideologically.

Bestselling author

Sandel has authored popular works like What Money Can't Buy and Justice: What's The Right Thing To Do. Referred to as the "master of big questions", he'd asked during a lecture broadcast on BBC4, if it was fair that Wayne Rooney earns more than a care worker.