Mumbai, July 7: The central board of the Reserve Bank of India today discussed the constitution of the much-awaited monetary policy committee (MPC).

The meeting, which was held in Bangalore, was chaired by RBI governor Raghuram Rajan and was attended by deputy governors Urjit Patel, R. Gandhi, S.S. Mundra and N.S.Vishwanathan. Other directors of the central board who were present at the meeting include Nachiket M. Mor, Damodar Acharya, Natarajan Chandrasekaran, Bharat N. Doshi and Sudhir Mankad. Economic affairs secretary Shaktikanta Das, a government nominee, was also present.

The committee will have three members from the RBI - the governor, the deputy governor in charge of the monetary policy and an official nominated by the central board. It will also have three external members who will be experts in the field of economics, banking, finance or monetary policy.

The three external members will be selected by another six-member committee that will include the cabinet secretary, secretary in the department of economic affairs and the RBI governor. If the RBI governor is unable to attend, he will be represented by a deputy governor.

Last month, the Centre had started the process of forming the six-member panel. It comes ahead of the monetary policy, which will be announced on August 9. Earlier, the finance ministry had notified that the amendment in the RBI act, which provides for the formation of the MPC, would come into effect from June 27.

"In (today's) meeting, the central board discussed, among other issues, macroeconomic developments and two other specific areas of operations of the RBI, namely, the Reserve Bank's budget and constitution of the MPC. The board also reviewed the activities of the Board for Payment and Settlement System for the year ended March 2016 and discussed the draft annual report for 2015-16," the RBI said.