The newly-constituted Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Reserve Bank will begin its three-day deliberations on Wednesday amid expectations that the central bank this time around may refrain from changing the benchmark lending rates. On September 28, the RBI had postponed the meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC), which must have a quorum of four, as the appointment of independent members was delayed. The meeting was scheduled to take place from September 29.
Within a day of the government appointing three independent members of the MPC, the Reserve Bank announced that the rate-setting panel will meet from October 7 to 9 for the bi-monthly review of the monetary policy.
“... The next meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is scheduled during October 7 to October 9, 2020,” the Reserve Bank said in a statement. The decision of the rate-setting panel will be announced on October 9.The government has appointed three eminent economists Ashima Goyal, Jayanth R Varma and Shashanka Bhide as members of the MPC. The new members replace Chetan Ghate, Pami Dua, and Ravindra Dholakia. They were appointed on the panel for four years on September 29, 2016. As per the RBI Act, the external members can hold office for a period of four years and are not eligible for re-appointment. Bhide is senior advisor at the National Council for Applied Economic Research, while Goyal is a professor at the Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research. Varma is professor at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.