MPC: Ashima Goyal, JR Varma And Shashanka Bhide Appointed To Monetary Policy Committee

The government has filled the position of three external members to the Monetary Policy Committee by the appointment of Ashima Goyal, Jayanth R Varma and Shashanka Bhide.

They have been appointed for a term of four years each or until further orders, whichever is earlier, said a government notification.

Ashima Goyal is a professor at the Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research in Mumbai. She has a masters degree in economics from the Delhi School of Economics and a Ph.D from Bombay University. Goyal has been a member of the Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council under the leadership of Bibek Debroy since 2017.

Shashanka Bhide is senior advisor of research programs at the National Council of Applied Economic Research in Delhi. His research has covered a number of areas in agriculture, macroeconomic modeling, infrastructure and poverty analysis, according to the NCAER website. He has a masters degree in agricultural economics from the Indian Agriculture Research Institute, Delhi. His Ph.D is also in agricultural economics from Iowa State University.

Jayanth R Varma, professor of finance and accounting at IIM Ahmedabad is a noted expert on the financial sector. He earned his post graduate degree and doctorate in management from the same institution. He has served as part time member of securities regulator SEBI for three years and a full time member for one year. He has also served on several committees on financial market regulation and reform, and held a number of corporate board positions over the years.

In this second round of MPC appointments, the government has persisted with the selection of academics, albeit veered away from picking all specialists in macro economics and monetary economics. The new MPC members will bring a mix of experience in the fields of macro economics, financial markets and agricultural economics.

The three MPC seats have been vacant since the terms of previous appointees —Chetan Ghate, Pami Dua, and Ravindra Dholakia—ended in September 22 as they were appointed on Sep 22, 2016 for a period of four years. The rules do not allow re-appointment of members.

The delay in appointment of new members had prompted Reserve Bank of India to reschedule the meeting of the MPC to be held on Sep 29-Oct 1. The date of the meeting of the rate-setting panel will be “be announced shortly”, the central bank said then.

Other members on the MPC are RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das, Deputy Governor Michael Patra, and Executive Director Janak Raj. The mandate of the panel, formed in 2016, is to target consumer prices within a range of 2%-6%.