Mumbai, Oct. 16 -- India's monetary policy committee unanimously voted to keep interest rates unchanged earlier this month to keep the powder dry and leave room for future cuts depending on the situation, showed minutes released on Wednesday. However, there were differences around the stance of the monetary policy among members of the panel of six, with two external candidates-Nagesh Kumar and Ram Singh-in favour of changing it from neutral to accommodative. An accommodative stance would signal that the central bank supports growth and indicates that interest rates could go down, whereas a neutral stance allows the rate-setting panel to decide the course based on fresh data. "There is elevated uncertainty on the external front," said governor Sanjay Malhotra. "...even though there is policy space to further cut the policy rate, I feel this is not the opportune time for the same as it will not have the desirable impact." Malhotra said although growth remained strong, its outlook is softer and is expected to be below RBI's aspirations. On 1 October, the MPC raised its growth forecast for FY26 to 6.8% from 6.5% earlier. It also cut its FY26 inflation forecast to 2.6% from 3.1%. He said the benign outlook for headline and core inflation opens up policy space to further support growth. But he, like other panel members, was in favour of waiting for the full impact of fiscal and monetary measures to permeate through the economy, even as Donald Trump's tariff-related uncertainties remain. The MPC has lowered the repo rate by 100 basis points (bps) since February, with an outsized and surprising 50-basis point cut in June alone. Referring to the recent GST cuts, deputy governor Poonam Gupta said, "It would be prudent for the impact of these measures to be sufficiently realized before taking another supportive measure right away," said Gupta. Indranil Bhattacharyya, RBI's executive director and the newest member of the committee, said that heightened uncertainty would not allow a rate cut to have the intended impact. External member Ram Singh cited fiscal measures and the earlier monetary easing still working, and the uncertainty on the external front....