Ram Singh, Saugata Bhattacharya, Nagesh Kumar appointed as new MPC members

The Government on Tuesday appointed the Director of the Delhi School of Economics, Ram Singh, noted economist Saugata Bhattacharya, and the Director of the Institute for Studies in Industrial Development, Nagesh Kumar, to the Monetary Policy Committee.

Economist Saugata Bhattacharya

“The Members of the Monetary Policy Committee appointed by the Central Government shall hold office for a period of four years, with immediate effect or until further orders, whichever is earlier,” a Finance Ministry statement said. They will replace Ashima Goyal, an economist and Professor at the Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research (IGIDR), Shashanka Bhide, a Senior Advisor at the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER), and Jayanth R Varma, a Professor of Finance at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A).

Nagesh Kumar, Director, Institute for Studies in Industrial Development

The new members are expected to attend the MPC meeting scheduled to be held next week.

Ram Singh is Ph.D. (Economics) from Jawaharlal Nehru University. He has a post-doctorate (Economics) degree from Harvard University, Cambridge. His areas of expertise include Public Economics, Taxes and Public Finance, Law and Economics, Banking and Financial Regulations, Indian Economy. He has over two decades of experience in teaching, research and publishing.

Nagesh Kumar is the Director and Chief Executive of the Institute for Studies in Industrial Development (ISID). Prior to taking up this role in May 2021, he served as Director at the United Nations Economic and Social Commission of Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP), holding several senior management roles during 2009-21 including as Chief Economist, Director of Macroeconomic Policy and Financing for Development Division and Social Development Division at the UNESCAP headquarters in Bangkok and as Head of the South and South-West Asia Office located in New Delhi, that he also had the privilege of establishing.

Kumar, a PhD in Economics from the Delhi School of Economics, is a recipient of the Exim Bank’s first International Trade Research Award in 1990, and GDN’s Research Medal awarded by the World Bank and the Japanese Government in Tokyo in 2000.

Saugata Bhattacharya is an economist with over three decades of experience in economic and financial markets analysis, policy advocacy, infrastructure and project finance, consumer behaviour and analytics. Earlier, he was the Chief Economist and Executive Vice-President of Axis Bank. Prior to that he worked as a specialist with the Policy Advisory Group at IDFC, and participated in several key committees of the Central Government, including the Prime Minister’s Task Force on Infrastructure.