Who is Poonam Gupta? World Bank economist named as RBI's new Deputy governor; check details

India on Wednesday appointed former World Bank and International Monetary Fund economist Poonam Gupta as a Deputy Governor at the Reserve Bank of India. Gupta's appointment comes at a key time, when the RBI is in a cycle to loosen its monetary policy.

Poonam Gupta was appointed for a three-year term, an Indian official told reporters in New Delhi on Wednesday, asking not to be identified in line with the government’s rules, as per a report by Bloomberg.

With the appointment, Poonam Gupta has become the RBI’s first woman deputy governor in over a decade.

Who is Poonam Gupta, new RBI deputy governor?

A well-known economist and government adviser, Poonam Gupta worked for nearly two decades at the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

Poonam Gupta succeeds Michael Patra, who was head of the monetary policy department at the RBI and who retired in January.

The former IMF economist will likely join the monetary policy committee, which cut interest rates for the first time in five years in February under new Governor Sanjay Malhotra. Economists expect more rate cuts next week as Malhotra pivots to a more growth-friendly approach than his predecessor, Shaktikanta Das.

Gupta was a part-time member of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister and the director general of the National Council of Applied Economic Research, a New Delhi based think-tank. In recent articles, she’s argued for more flexibility in the exchange rate as a buffer against shocks.

“In recent years, policy response has shifted more toward the use of reserves while limiting depreciation of the exchange rate,” she wrote in an opinion piece in March in The Economic Times newspaper. “This ought to be revisited for speedier mitigation of shocks,” she said.

Gupta also favoured price stability and recommended updating the weight of food prices in the inflation basket. Her views will hold importance as the RBI and the federal government review the inflation targeting framework in March 2026.