Centre Appoints Poonam Gupta As RBI Deputy Governor

The Union government has appointed Poonam Gupta as a deputy governor of the Reserve Bank of India for a period of three years.

In an official letter, the government said that the appointments committee of the cabinet cleared Gupta's appointment. NDTV Profit has reviewed a copy of the letter. An official joining date is yet to be announced.

The government had been looking for a suitable replacement for Michael D Patra, who retired as RBI deputy governor in January. A search process was originally initiated last year.

Gupta is currently the director general at the National Council of Applied Economic Research. At the NCAER, Gupta is also director at the National Growth and Macro Centre. She is also a member of the Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council and a member of the advisory council to the 16th Finance Commission.

Previously, Gupta has also acted as a lead economist at the World Bank, Reserve Bank of India Chair Professor, National Institute of Public Finance and Policy Professor, and Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations, among other such roles.

The appointment comes days before the monetary policy committee is set to meet. The financial year's first monetary policy committee meeting is set to happen between April 7 and April 9. RBI Governor Sanjay Malhotra will announce the MPC's decision on April 9. Economists are expecting a second rate cut, after the MPC decided to bring down the benchmark repo rate by 25 basis points to 6.25% in February.

Since Patra retired in January, RBI Deputy Governor M Rajeshwar Rao has been managing the monetary policy department at the central bank. Rao was one of the three RBI members in the MPC for the February policy meet.