Modi Government to Appoint New External Members to RBI’s Monetary Policy Committee

The Narendra Modi government is in the process of appointing new external members to the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), according to multiple media reports on Friday.

Bloomberg and CNBC-TV18 reported that these appointments are expected to be finalized before the October MPC meeting. The MPC consists of six members, including three from the central bank and three external members.

The committee is headed by RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das. Typically, the external members are distinguished economists or financial experts. The current external members are Ashima Goyal, Jayanth R. Varma, and Shashanka Bhide. Goyal is a well-known economist and a professor at the Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Varma is a professor at IIM Ahmedabad, and Bhide serves as a senior advisor at the National Council of Applied Economic Research in Delhi, as reported by CNBC-TV18.

All three were appointed in October 2020, and since the RBI Act does not allow for extensions, the government will need to appoint new members by the end of their term.

The tenure of the current external members ends on October 4, while the next MPC meeting is scheduled for October 9. According to the Bloomberg report, the names of the new members are expected to be announced by the end of September or in the first week of October.