MEET THE NEW MPC MEMBERS
The Reserve Bank of India’s Monetary Policy Committee has three new external members. Here’s what each of them brings to the table:
Jayanth R Varma PROFESSOR AT INDIAN INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT, AHMEDABAD
A well-known financial markets expert, Varma teaches courses in capital market, fixed income, alternative investment and corporate finance at IIM-A where he has been dean for three years. Before this, he was a full-time member of the Securities Exchange Board of India (Sebi) for a year and prior to that, a part-time member of the market regulator for three years.
An IIM gold medalist for scholastic performance and a qualified cost accountant, Varma has been the chairman of several of Sebi’s committees, including the Secondary Markets Advisory Committee. He was also chairman of a number of committees of the former commodity market regulator, the Forward Markets Commission, under the finance ministry.
Varma was part of the Financial Sector Legislative Reforms Commission, chaired by former RBI governor Raghuram Rajan. He has also been on the board of several companies: Axis Bank, Bharat Petroleum Corporation, Gujarat International Finance Tec-city, Infosys BPM and Punjab National Bank.
At IIM-A, he has extensively researched the Indian financial markets and finance theory, and his papers have been published in Indian and international journals. The Great Indian Scam, the book he co-authored with Samir Barua on the securities scam was a national best seller.
Apart from consulting assignments for governments, he has worked closely with multilateral and private sector organisations in areas including financing choices, risk management, management information and control systems, and corporate strategy.
Varma’s current research interests are principally in the area of financial markets. He is also interested in mathematical modelling and computer simulation.
Ashima Goyal FORMER MEMBER, ECONOMIC ADVISORY COUNCIL TO THE PRIME MINISTER
Goyal is an old hand in monetary policy formulations, so her appointment came as no surprise to economists.
She is among the handful of independent economists in India who have deep knowledge of and have made original contribution to the field of macro-economy and monetary policy research.
Goyal was a member of the technical advisory committee (TAC) that advised the RBI governor on policy matters. This was before MPC came into existence in 2016. The advice was non-binding on the governor.
She has also provided consultancy to the World Bank, Asian Development Bank and other multilateral institutions.
A professor of economics at the Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research (IGIDR), where she teaches mainly macro-economy, she was also a member of the powerful Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council (PMEAC) from which she resigned after her MPC appointment.
She is often asked about her view on the monetary policy, and if it is opposed to the MPC outcome, it is read as the view of a PMEAC member running counter to RBI’S MPC. This is because the PMEAC has a direct contribution towards all economic policies introduced by the government. She must have been deeply involved in the fiscal policy measures needed to deal with the Covid-related stress the economy is facing. PMEAC and its members were consulted on the ~20 trillion stimulus measures announced, and the one planned in the coming days.
Her fields of research and interest include open economy macroeconomics, international finance, financial markets and regulation, institutions and development. Her current research is focused on fiscal and monetary policies, emerging market econometric models, flexible inflation targeting, among others.
Goyal is also widely published in institutional and open economy macroeconomics, international finance and governance. She edits the Routledge journal, Macroeconomics and Finance in Emerging Market Economies.
She is a recipient of two best research awards at GDN meetings at Tokyo (2000) and Rio de Janeiro (2001), and was the first Professor P R Brahmananda Memorial Research Grant awardee for a study on history of monetary policy in India since Independence in 2011.
Shashanka Bhide SENIOR ADVISOR, NATIONAL COUNCIL OF APPLIED ECONOMIC RESEARCH
Bhide has rich research experience in several areas: agriculture, macroeconomic modelling, infrastructure and poverty analysis. He is also a member of the board of governors of the Institute for Social and Economic Change, Bengaluru. In 2003, he had joined as professor and head of the RBI unit at the institute.
An extensively published writer and researcher, Bhide, who is a doctor of philosophy in agriculture economics, worked as staff economist at the Centre for Agricultural and Rural Development, Iowa State University in the 1980s. In 1998-1999, he was a visiting fellow, Australia South Asia Research Center, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University, Canberra.
Between 2014 and 2018, he was director at Madras Institute of Development Studies, Chennai.