Centre on Wednesday appointed Poonam Gupta as Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Deputy Governor for three years. She is presently the director general of the economic policy research think tank National Council of Applied Economic Research.

Gupta’s appointment is made just days before the next RBI Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting scheduled for April 7-9. She replaces Michael D Patra, RBI deputy governor between January 2020 and January 2025. Patra was responsible for monetary policy, economic and policy research and financial markets operations within the central bank.

Economic Advisory Council

Gupta is a member of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister and also the Advisory Council convener to the 16th Finance Commission. She became a part of NCAER in 2021, having worked in senior roles for almost two decades at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank in Washington DC.

Between these appointments, she has taught at the Delhi School of Economics and at the University of Maryland (USA). She has also been visiting faculty at the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI), Delhi. Gupta has been RBI Chair Professor at the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy (NIPFP) as well as a professor at the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations Research (ICRIER).

At NCAER, Gupta coordinates the research on economic growth issues, international financial architecture, central banking, macroeconomic stability, public debt, and state finances.

Gupta has close to 50 widely-cited research papers and an edited book on India and China (with Barry Eichengreen) to her credit. Her research has been cited in the Economist, the Financial Times, and The Wall Street Journal.

The newly joined RBI deputy governor has a Master’s degree and PhD in Economics from the University of Maryland, US, and a Master’s degree in Economics from the Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi.