The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has got three external members. The government of India issued
a notification appointing Ram Singh, Saugata Bhattacharya and Dr Nagesh Kumar as three external members of the RBI’s MPC on
September 2.
Among the newly appointed external members, Ram Singh is currently the Director of Delhi School of Economics, Saugata Bhattacharya is an economist and Dr Nagesh Kumar is Chief Executive of the Institute of Studies in Industrial Development (ISID).
The appointments have been done on the basis of the recommendations by a panel of selectors comprising RBI Governor, Shaktikanta Das
(Retd. IAS:1980:TN); Cabinet Secretary Dr. T V Somanathan (IAS:1987:TN) and Union Secretary for Department of Economic
Affairs Ajay Seth (IAS:1987:KN).
These appointments were necessitated by the fact the four-year contract of the three external members- Ashima Goyal, Shashanka
Bhide and Jayant R Varma- are ending on September 4, and as per the RBI Act, external members are not eligible for extension.
