RBI Economist Accuses SBI Research Team of Copying Data From Monetary Policy Report

In a first-time occurrence, Reserve Bank of India economists, who are the nation's monetary authority, and State Bank of India economists, the nation's largest bank, went public with their disagreement on the question of plagiarism in an economic study report. Surprisingly enough, these charges were publicly levied on the social networking site LinkedIn. The issue has generated some unease among the nation's top economic institutions.

In a post shared on LinkedIn, Sarthak Gulati, Assistant General Manager of the Reserve Bank's Monetary Policy Department, alleged that the State Bank of India's research team had unintentionally stolen data from the latest edition of the central bank's Monetary Policy Report (MPR) for the SBI's Ecowrap publication. In a post shared on social media, Sarthak Gulati wrote, "As financial and economic professionals, we rely on originality. However, it is extremely concerning that the data in the State Bank's recent Ecowrap report was copied verbatim from the Reserve Bank's Monetary Policy Report without permission."

The Monetary Policy Report is published every six months under the RBI law. This report provides insights into the causes of inflation and forecasts for the next 6-18 months. Sarthak Gulati alleged that this theft of economic research data would not only mislead readers but also undermine the standards of economic research. State Bank economist Tapas Parida refuted Reserve Bank economist Sarthak Gulati's allegations on LinkedIn. However, no clarification or official statement has been issued by the Reserve Bank or the State Bank of India regarding this matter.