केंद्र ने आरबीआई की मौद्रिक नीति समिति का पुनर्गठन, नए बाहरी सदस्यों की नियुक्ति

Centre reconstitutes RBI's Monetary Policy Committee, appoints new external members

The Central Government has reconstituted the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC), the institution that sets the policy rate of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). The three-day review meeting of the MPC will be held from October 7 to 9. This time also, there is no hope of change in the policy interest rate repo rate. According to a notification of the Finance Ministry, Ram Singh, Saugata Bhattacharya and Nagesh Kumar have been appointed as new external members in the MPC that sets the policy rate of the RBI. The government has notified the reconstitution of the Reserve Bank Monetary Policy Committee under the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934. These new members have been appointed for four years.

Under the reconstitution of the RBI's MPC, Prof. Ram Singh, Director of Delhi School of Economics, economist Saugata Bhattacharya and Dr. Nagesh Kumar, Director and Chief Executive of the Institute of Industrial Development Studies, New Delhi, have been made its external members. The head of the MPC that sets the policy rate is Reserve Bank of India. The governor of the bank is Shaktikanta Das. The first bi-monthly review meeting of the reconstituted Monetary Policy Committee under the chairmanship of RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das is to be held from October 7 to 9. After this meeting, Governor Shaktikanta Das will make an announcement on October 9. The MPC was formed in 2016 after finalizing the monetary policy framework agreement. Inflation targets were set in it. Under this, the RBI has been given the responsibility of keeping inflation at four percent with a variation of two percent. Economic experts said that the three-day bi-monthly MPC review meeting of the RBI under the chairmanship of RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das will run from October 7-9. There is no possibility of change in interest rates in this meeting as well. The previous meeting was held in August, in which the MPC did not change the interest rate repo rate for the 9th consecutive time. This time too, there is no hope of change in the policy interest rates repo rate.

According to the provisions of the RBI Act, the Monetary Policy Committee consists of six members. This committee decides on changes in policy interest rates. Three members of the committee are from RBI while three members are appointed by the Central Government. The six-member committee is chaired by the RBI Governor. Its official members include the Deputy Governor in charge of monetary policy in the Reserve Bank, the Executive Director of the Monetary Policy Department and another officer. It meets every two months. The repo rate is the rate at which the Reserve Bank lends money to commercial banks in case of any shortage. The monetary authority uses the RBI repo rate to control inflation. The RBI last increased the repo rate by 0.25 per cent in February 2023, which has now increased to 6.50 per cent. The Reserve Bank had cut the repo rate by 0.40 per cent twice between March 27, 2020 and October 9, 2020 during Corona. After this, the RBI increased the policy interest rates 5 times. Four times it was not changed while once it was cut by 0.50 percent in August 2022. Before COVID-19, the repo rate was at 5.15 percent on February 6, 2020. It is noteworthy that at present the external members of the MPC are Dr. Ashima Goyal, member of the Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council, Shashank Bhide, Senior Advisor in the National Council for Applied Economic Research and Professor Jayant R Verma of the Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad. The newly appointed external members of the MPC will replace them.