NEW DELHI: The central government has appointed three external members to the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Reserve Bank of India after the four-year tenure of the earlier nominees ended in September.
Ashima Goyal, professor, Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Jayanth R. Varma, professor, Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad and Shashanka Bhide, senior advisor, National Council of Applied Economic Research will be the three government nominees joining the RBI governor Shaktikanta Das, deputy governor Michael Patra and executive director Mridul Saggar in the MPC that decides policy rate required to achieve the inflation target.
The RBI had to postpone its last meeting of Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) beginning 29 September as government could not feel the vacancies after the tenure of the three external members–Ravindra Dholakia, Pami Dua and Chetan Ghate–ended in September. Members of the MPC are not eligible for reappointment.
Goyal is also a member of the Prime minister’s Economic Advisory Council and a strong votary of government’s economic policies in public forums. She has earlier served as a member in the RBI technical advisory committee for monetary policy. Currently, she is an independent director at Edelweiss Financial Services, IDBI bank and SBI General Insurance.
Verma is an expert on financial markets and his research interests include financial sector reforms, functioning of banks and foreign exchange risk management. Bhide is an expert on agriculture and inflation matters.
According to the RBI Act, external members of the MPC will be appointed by the central government “from amongst persons of ability, integrity and standing, having knowledge and experience in the field of economics or banking or finance or monetary policy.”
