In an attempt to benchmark India’s statistics to international standards and bring improvements as needed, the Reserve Bank of India has formed an expert panel. The ten-member panel, notified on Monday, will be headed by Michael Debabrata Patra, the Deputy Governor of the apex bank of the country. The RBI has asked the panel to submit the report by the end of November 2024.
The RBI has laid out three objectives for the expert committee. The panel has been vested with the responsibility of benchmarking the statistics regularly disseminated by the bank against global standards and best practices. The constituted committee will also study the quality of other regular data where benchmarks do not exist. This includes data of various sectors which are of national priority.
Finally, the panel will be tasked with providing guidance and inputs on the scope of any other further data refinement, the RBI stated in an official statement.
The ten-member panel will consist of the National Statistical Commission’s former Chairman RB Barman, the National Institute of Bank Management’s Director Partha Ray and the Former Director of the Indian Statistical Institute Bimal Roy.
In addition, the National Council of Applied Economic Research’s (NCAER) Sonalde Desai, Former Chief Statistician of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Paul Schreyer along with the Head of Statistics and Research Support, Bank for International Settlements (BIS) Bruno Tissot will form the panel.
RBI’s former Executive Director Sudarshan Sen, and RBI’s Executive Director Muneesh Kapur will be part of the panel. The Executive Director of RBI OP Mall will be the convenor.
The apex bank has directed its Department of Statistics and Information Management (DISM) to help the committee by providing necessary secretarial assistance.
