Noted economist Bibek Debroy has quit his post as director (research) of the Rajiv Gandhi Institute for Contemporary Research. He will leave his current position in August.

Debroy reportedly made the move after a research paper put out by the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation sparked a controversy, rating Gujarat as the number one state in India in terms of providing economic freedom.

The research paper came out a couple of months ago and was sponsored by the Friedrich-Naumann Stiftung in Germany and published by RGF, which oversees the operations of the institute.

In the study, a sub-national index of economic freedom was to be measured for the first time in India. Gujarat topped the index, based on such variables as government interference, legal structure and security of property rights.

The published results   created a controversy since the Congress had been consistently attacking the Narendra Modi government.