The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) appointed Aviral Jain as its new Executive Director (ED), effective October 1, 2024, to oversee legal and other divisions. Jain was the Regional Director for Maharashtra before being appointed to Executive Director. The new executive director has over three decades of experience in supervision, currency management, foreign exchange regulation, and human resource management.

"Shri Jain, Executive Director, will oversee the 1. Legal Department, 2. Premises Department, and 3. Right to Information Act (First Appellate Authority). Shri Jain is a postgraduate in economics. He also holds AML/KYC and Capital Markets certificates, as well as IIBF Certified Associate status, according to the central bank's press announcement.

Previously, on Tuesday, the government revamped the Reserve Bank's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC), adding economists Ram Singh, Saugata Bhattacharya, and Nagesh Kumar to the critical six-member rate-setting panel for four years, or until further instructions. The new members will cover the gaps left by the departures of Ashima Goyal, Jayanth Varma, and Shashank Bhide, whose four-year terms finish this week. The MPC is set to meet again on October 7-9 to review monetary policy.

The reconstitution comes at a critical time since the US Federal Reserve has implemented an aggressive 50 basis point decrease in its policy rates, and central banks in other advanced nations are expected to follow suit. Some experts believe the RBI will begin the rate-cutting cycle as early as December. RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das has opposed any rapid action, citing the need for domestic inflation to stabilize at the 4% objective for the long term.

Retail inflation stayed below its medium-term objective of 4% for the second consecutive month in August, and economists do not expect a big increase in the following months. Between May 2022 and February 2023, the MPC raised the benchmark interest rate by 250 basis points, after which it paused to keep inflation under control.