The Alumni Association of the Department of Analytical and Applied Economics, Utkal University, organised the 2nd Bidyadhar Misra Memorial lecture on Wednesday. The lecture series has been instituted in memory of the founder-professor of the department late Prof Bidyadhar Misra.
This year’s talk was delivered by a distinguished alumnus of the department, Dr Michael Debabrata Patra, Executive Director of the Reserve Bank of India, Mumbai.
Speaking on the challenges confronting the framing of monetary policy in India, Dr Patra highlighted India’s growing integration into the global economy and managing spillovers, the medium-term growth potential of the Indian economy versus transitory factors underlying the recent slowdown, the importance of a credible commitment to the inflation target while looking through the recent soft readings, stress in corporate/bank balance sheets and restarting credit flows to productive sectors and anchoring external sector sustainability in the context of global developments.
Emphasising first principles in the form of monetary-fiscal coordination, rule-based conduct of policies and effective communication, Dr Patra explained the new monetary policy framework guided by maintaining price stability keeping in mind the objective of growth, with decision making vested in the monetary policy committee. He set out the operating procedure of monetary policy, issues in its transmission and the role of effectively communicating uncertainty and the balance of risks.
He spoke of the challenges that lie ahead in the form of global risks, and the sharpening trade-off between inflation and growth. In his view, reviving private investment holds the key to unlocking India’s growth potential.
The talk was attended by university Vice Chancellor Prof SM Pattnaik, PG Council Chairman Prof B Satpathy, president of the Alumni Association, Prof K B Das, vice-president, Dr SC Kumar, secretary Dr Mitali Chinara besides the faculty members of departments, research scholars, current and past students of the department.