An interdisciplinary group reading between the rates
We began with a narrow question about the Reserve Bank of India’s Monetary Policy Committee: whether the language of individual members carried information that their votes did not. The answer turned out to be yes, and the question generalised. What follows is an account of how the group started, what it studies now, and who does the work.
- Founded
- 2020
- Formed during the pandemic policy response, out of work on the Indian MPC.
- Primary corpus
- RBI MPC, 2016–present
- Statements, minutes, individual member statements, and recorded votes.
- Methods
- NLP + applied econometrics
- Text-as-data measurement, benchmarked against the official stance and outcomes.
An account of the group’s origins, commitments, and current direction.
Why we started
Our journey began at the height of the pandemic, when both the global and Indian economies had come to a standstill. For the first time in decades, growth numbers plunged into negative territory, and most indicators painted a bleak picture. On the frontlines, among others, Central Bankers were spearheading the process of recovery. The phrase “whatever it takes,” made famous during the Eurozone crisis, was back in vogue. In India, for instance, all eyes turned to Governor Das. His monetary policy addresses, punctuated with references to Mahatma Gandhi and Stoic philosophers like Epictetus, stood out. Alongside decisive rate cuts and accommodative measures, subtle differences in tone and stance began to emerge.
At first, these murmurs were faint; later they became more pronounced in the minutes of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC). As observers, we found this fascinating. Could latent discord reveal deeper stories about the economy? Traversing through the minutes of MPC meetings, we had deliberations and debates around the subjective interpretations of the text, all the while looking for a more objective lens to capture the underlying sentiments and complement the subjective expositions.
That’s when Natural Language Processing (NLP) offered a way forward. By extracting sentiments from the texts and juxtaposing them with official stance, we stumbled upon intriguing patterns. This gave birth to our first study on “Implicit Dissent” in the Indian MPC where we showed how presence of dissenting voices improved the accuracy of professional forecasts of the Indian economy. Encouraged, we shared our findings across India and abroad. Some doors closed, but others welcomed us warmly.
What we stand for
Our research is interdisciplinary in nature. It falls at the intersection of Economics and Computer Science while simultaneously exploring and drawing insights from other fields of study such as Psychology and Political Science. We aim to analyse how different communication strategies adopted by a country’s central bank influence the economic climate alongside public perception.
This platform initiates, facilitates, and sustains policy debates on building effective communication strategies. Using visual tools, narrative insights, and curated datasets, we trace how central bank communication themes evolve and how they connect to policy moves and market reactions.
What's next
Research on central bank communication is gathering momentum. Each study—ours and others’—offers fresh perspectives on the Indian economy and beyond. They remind us that behind every policy statement lie institutional pressures, philosophical leanings, group dynamics, and sometimes plain human doubt.
Text analysis and other research tools, paired with the curiosity to ask the right questions, help uncover these layers. If these questions excite you, we’d love to connect. And if you disagree, please argue with us—ideas grow best when challenged.
As we continue listening to the chorus in the cacophony, we invite you to join us to witness the symphony in policy making orchestrated by sound and effective communication strategies.