[8] for his doctoral thesis "Fiscal reforms at the sub-national level" Subbarao's early career consisted of field postings in Andhra Pradesh.

As managing director of Andhra Pradesh State Finance Corporation (1986–88), he was noted for encouraging first generation entrepreneurs to invest in industry and service sectors.

Subbarao was on deputation to government of India as a joint secretary in the Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance,[9] where he was involved in formulating and implementing the 1991 reforms.

[4] As Finance Secretary to Government of India, Subbarao questioned the rationale of giving away valuable spectrum to telecom operators in 2007 at prices fixed in 2001.

Subbarao gave evidence in the CBI case relating to alleged corruption by ministers and civil servants in the allocation of 2G spectrum and the judge noted in the judgement that he was a stellar witness.

Then just as the impact of the crisis on India started ebbing, the action shifted to combating an unusually stubborn bout of inflation (2009–11) which segued into a battle against a sharp depreciation of rupee because of what came to be known as taper tantrums.

Subbarao is generally credited as having safely stewarded Indian economy through the financial crisis although he has been criticized for not aggressively stemming the fall of the rupee during the taper tantrums.

[13][14] Subbarao's erudite exposition of the holy trinity firmly established the Indian perspective[15] in the scholastic debate on the global central banking trilemma.

[19][20][21][22] The book has been hailed for the honesty, humility and candour with which Subbarao narrated the challenges and dilemmas he confronted as Governor of RBI during an unusually turbulent period.