Poonam Gupta takes charge as RBI Deputy Governor, to join MPC in June

Poonam Gupta will oversee Monetary Policy, Research and Financial Stability departments at RBI and joins MPC as India debates targeting core versus headline inflation

Economist Poonam Gupta on Friday took charge as deputy governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), where she will oversee the crucial monetary policy department, among others, becoming the fourth woman to hold the prestigious post.

 

The central bank has four deputy governors.

 

Before Gupta, KJ Udeshi, Shyamala Gopinath and Usha Thorat had served as deputy governors of the central bank.

 

She succeeded Michael Patra, whose term as deputy governor in-charge of the monetary policy department, ended in January this year.

 

 

Apart from monetary policy, Gupta, now 57 years old, will handle the Financial Markets Operations Department, Department of Economic and Policy Research, Financial Stability Department, International Department, Department of Statistics and Information Management, Corporate Strategy and Budget Department, and Department of Communication.

 

As a deputy governor in charge of the monetary policy department, she will also be a part of the six-member monetary policy committee (MPC) of the central bank.

 

The rate setting panel has cut policy repo rates by 25 bps each in the previous two policy meetings, April and February. The next meeting is scheduled in June. 

 

Prior to her current role, Gupta was Director General of the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER).

 

She holds Ph.D in Economics from the University of Maryland, USA, and a Master’s in Economics from the Delhi School of Economics.

 

Before joining NCAER, Gupta had worked at senior positions for nearly two decades at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank.

 

She also taught at the Delhi School of Economics, University of Maryland (USA) and as a visiting faculty at the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI), Delhi.

 

She has been the RBI Chair Professor at the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy (NIPFP) and a Professor at the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER).

 

She has various research papers published and an edited book ‘Emerging Giants: China and India in the World Economy’ to her credit.