RBI Economist Accuses SBI of Plagiarism in LinkedIn Showdown
A senior RBI economist has publicly accused State Bank of India researchers of plagiarizing content from the central bank’s Monetary Policy Reports in their Ecowrap publications, sparking an unprecedented social media confrontation between India’s two premier financial institutions.
Key Takeaways
- RBI’s Sarthak Gulati alleges SBI Ecowrap copied “paragraph by paragraph” from RBI reports
- SBI research team denies all plagiarism charges
- Economist Ajit Ranade calls for proper attribution standards
The Allegations
RBI Assistant General Manager Sarthak Gulati detailed the accusations in a LinkedIn post during Diwali festivities, claiming SBI’s research team had copied key data, graphs, and charts without attribution.
“As professionals in the financial and economic research community, we rely on originality, attribution, and integrity in our analysis. That’s why it’s deeply concerning to see what appears to be verbatim replication of RBI’s Monetary Policy Reports,” Gulati stated.
He specifically cited July 2025 Ecowrap replicating “large parts of Chapter 2: Price and Cost from the RBI’s April 2025 MPR—paragraph by paragraph” and October 2025 Ecowrap similarly mirroring language and structure from the corresponding RBI report.
SBI’s Response
One day after the allegations surfaced, SBI Research team member Dr. Tapas Parida rejected all charges in a detailed rebuttal.
“We have gone on to update the observations with latest data and duly acknowledged Central Bank as source in our tables,” Dr. Parida asserted, defending the team’s research integrity.
The SBI response concluded with a Rumi quote emphasizing the importance of raising words rather than voices, while reaffirming their commitment to ethical research standards.
Industry Reaction
Prominent economist Ajit Ranade weighed in on the controversy, stating:
“Stealing ideas may be flattering to the original author, but is a serious breach of the code among academics and researchers. Proper attribution, citation, and providing references are basics.”
The public dispute highlights growing concerns about research ethics and attribution standards within India’s financial research community.
