The panel, which decides interest rates, is headed by the Reserve Bank of India Governor.
Credit: Reuters Photo
New Delhi: The central government on Tuesday appointed Ram Singh, Saugata Bhattacharya, and Nagesh Kumar as the new external members to the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) monetary policy committee, just a week ahead of the crucial meeting to decide on the policy interest rates amid a wave of global easing kicked off by the US Federal Reserve.
The MPC, which is headed by the RBI Governor, has six members. Out of these three are from the RBI and three are external, selected by the government.
Of the three external members brought in Ram Singh is Director, Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi. Nagesh Kumar is Director and Chief Executive, Institute for Studies in Industrial Development while Saugata Bhattacharya is a noted economist, who has served at Axis Bank.
Deputy Governor of the RBI, in charge of Monetary Policy is an ex officio member. Another official of the RBI, typically the executive director of the monetary policy department, is nominated by the central board as ex officio member of the rate setting panel.
As per the notification, the new external members have been appointed with immediate effect. Their tenure will be four years or “until further orders, whichever is earlier”.
The three outgoing external members of the panel are Ashima Goyal of the Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research; Jayanth R Varma of the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad;
and Shashanka Bhide, senior advisor at the National Council of Applied Economic
Research.
In the previous two MPC meetings, Goyal and Varma had voted for slashing interest rates. The RBI has kept key policy interest rates unchanged since February 2023.
The next meeting of the rate setting panel is scheduled for October 7-9.
Major central banks have recently cut their policy rates. In mid-September the US Federal Reserve lowered the key policy interest rate by 50 basis points. This was followed by lowering of rates by China and Switzerland and similar indications by the European Central Bank.