Mumbai, Aug 4 (IANS): Following are the reactions from a cross section of stakeholders on the monetary policy update undertaken by the Reserve Bank of India on Tuesday.

* Nirakar Pradhan, chief investment officer, Future Generali Life Insurance:

"After front-loading monetary policy actions with reduction in policy rates by 75 bps during the current calendar year, the Reserve Bank of India maintained status quo on repo rate at 7.25 percent in its meeting today. However, it indicated that an accommodative policy stance would continue if conditions like transmission by banks, stable food inflation, addressing supply side issues and signs of normalisation after US Fed action are met."

* V.S. Parthasarathy - Group CFO, Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd:

"The absence of RBI rate action was on expected and understandable lines, but one can't help the aftertaste of disappointment and doubt, whether an opportunity was missed for setting a lower interest rate trajectory to engender benign investment climate."

* George Alexander Muthoot, managing director, Muthoot Finance Ltd:

"RBI has decided to take a pause and maintain status quo. With the overall economy showing early signs of recovery and consumption demand picking up, we expect the rates to come down by second half of fiscal post the previous rate cuts gets absorbed in the system."

* Mihir Vora, director and chief investment officer, Max Life Insurance:

"In spite of the incremental positives, the 'no-change' stance is because of the belief that the earlier rate-cuts were front-loaded and the RBI is awaiting further transmission by banks. On the positive side, there does seem to be emerging room for more accommodation. We continue to maintain that key rates will be reduced by 25 basis points before March 2016 and remain positive on the fixed income markets in India."

* Lakshmi Iyer, chief investment officer (debt) and head, products, Kotak Mutual Fund:

"While the policy event was a status quo, the tone and tenor indicates that central banker is looking to build a sustainable and accommodative monetary policy environment. RBI's insistence that banks transmit the earlier rate cuts; and its willingness to allow positive liquidity in the system, implies that central banker is seeking to increase competition amongst banks."

* Kunal Shah, fund manager, debt at Kotak Mahindra Old Mutual Life Insurance Ltd:

"For bond markets, policy guidance is less dovish than expected also more easing of rates are contingent on various factors. Hence, in near term 10y yields can remain in a range of 7.75-7.85 percent. Markets will keep a close watch on rains and oil prices. We believe lower growth & lower commodity prices can provide further room for 25-50bps cuts in near to medium term, which will pull down 10y Gsec yields towards 7.5 percent."

* Debopam Chaudhuri, chief economist and vice president of research, ZyFin Research:

"Although the central bank has acknowledged a seeming recovery in consumer demand, this may start to wane out soon. Indian consumers have pegged their spending plans to declining borrowing costs. Unless banks are more forthcoming in passing on the 75 basis points cut in policy rates to their lending rates, recovery in consumer demand would continue to remain a distant reality, impacting banks' profitability as well."

* Dinesh Thakkar, chairman and managing director, Angel Broking:

"The status quo maintained by the RBI in terms of key policy rates was on expected lines. The RBI has however stated that it would continue to maintain accommodative policy stance in the coming months on expectations of moderation in inflation. The RBI reduced its inflation forecast for Q4 FY 2016 downwards by 0.2 percent."

* Sujan Hajra, chief economist, Anand Rathi Financial Services:

"The policy statement shows that the RBI expects inflation to be worrying in the next few months, due to inflation in vegetable-pulses-milk rising. The base for the next two months is quite favourable, but the RBI will look at the seasonal and base impacts."

* Rajesh Prajapati, managing director, Prajapati Constructions:

"The status quo by RBI discourages home buyers as well as developers. This is a grave injustice. The entire buyer-developer community was expecting the reduction in the interest rate; so that the burden of EMI can come down, however the RBI has disappointed all."

* Jyotsna Suri, president, Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry:

"The decision of Central Bank to keep the policy rate unchanged is disappointing for the industry. Given that the industrial growth still remains volatile and demand conditions have not seen much improvement, there is a need to give policy stimuli to encourage demand and investments."

* HSBC Global Research:

"As expected, the RBI kept policy rates on hold due to considerable uncertainty surrounding key dataa The RBI was clearly troubled by higher than expected CPI inflation in June (5.4 percent vs. 5 percent in May). While the next few months are likely to see soft y-o-y inflation prints, the RBI is clear that it will look through the base effects."

* Chandrajit Banerjee, director general, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII):

"The status quo on policy rates indicates a guarded approach towards monetary easing to restrain inflationary expectations and is in alignment with market expectations. No doubt, CII appreciates the RBI's concerns about the anticipated pipeline risks arising from inflationary expectations and unfavourable external developments as cited in the policy statement."