India, Aug. 7 -- A lot happened in the run-up to the 56th meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of RBI which ended on Wednesday. IMF's July update to the World Economic Outlook upgraded the Indian and world economy's growth forecasts. Post this update, US president Donald Trump imposed a tariff of 25% on India and termed the Indian economy as "dead". (Hours after the MPC decision, he announced an additional 25% tariff as penalty for India's crude oil imports from Russia.) How all of this turns out for the Indian economy is difficult to forecast at the moment. Therefore, it is understandable that the MPC has kept its growth forecast for 2025-26 unchanged at 6.5%, and not changed either the policy rate, or its stance. Having said that, the tone of the MPC resolution and the governor's statement could have been slightly more guarded. And a more reassuring one on three fronts at least. One, Trump's tariff announcements could pose problems for exporters to the US and they might need some banking support as prospects of orders and earnings, and disruptions to them, remain uncertain. Two, if India does rejig its crude oil purchases to reduce Russian buying, it could have an inflationary impact via the energy price route and eat into the available monetary policy space on account of low inflation. As RBI itself pointed out, the existing benign inflation environment - an annual forecast of 3.1% - is largely on account of food prices. And three, if food prices remain depressed for a longer time, its benefits in terms of low inflation could be outdone by the headwinds for rural incomes and, therefore, demand. To be sure, none of these would have warranted a different course of action in terms of policy decisions, namely the policy rate and policy stance being kept unchanged. MPC is absolutely justified in waiting for the transmission effects of frontloaded rate cuts and committing itself to what data shows in the future. This raises an interesting question as far as Indian policy making is concerned. Is RBI's, especially its quasi-independent arm MPC's, policy signalling really independent or largely in sync with the larger economic policy apparatus? If it is indeed the latter, is the current indifference to recent events in policy commentary part of a conscious strategy to deal with Trump's threats to the Indian economy's larger interests? As long as there is an objective appraisal of the Indian economy's strengths, weaknesses and negotiables in this bargain, things should be fine....