 "Prachi Mishra")
International Monetary Fund economist Prachi Mishra has joined the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). This is the first lateral entry in the central bank in the promotion grade. Mishra, who joins as chief general manager, will be part of the economic and policy research department.
Michael D Patra is the executive director of the department, which is headed by Deputy Governor Urjit Patel.
Her key role will be to strengthen the economic and policy research of the central bank. Mishra, who joined earlier this week, has already spoken to the researchers to get a sense of the kind of work that is done and identifying gaps. Researches in RBI said their job is more often that of information management than actual research. Mishra's research interests include international economics, macroeconomics, development economics and political economy.
Mishra was the senior economist at the IMF's monetary and capital market department. Later, she worked with then chief economic advisor of the finance ministry and now RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan in North Block between November 2012 and September 2013.
Mishra, an alumnas of the prestigious Delhi School of Economics, topped in Master's in Economics in 1999 and went on to do her doctorate at Columbia University, where eminent economist Jagdish Bhagwati was one of her thesis supervisors. The thesis was titled Essays on Globalization and Wages in Developing Countries.
Mishra was chosen from 58 candidates who had applied for the post of specialist adviser (research) in the department of economic and policy research of RBI when the position was announced in August.
