New Delhi, Oct. 5 -- "Uncertainty is not just an important feature of the monetary policy landscape; it is the defining characteristic of that landscape." - Alan Greenspan, former US Federal Reserve governor, in his 'Monetary Policy under Uncertainty' speech in August 2003.

Monetary policy is about making decisions about future interest rates and money supply on the basis of past data.

But the past few months have been a period of unprecedented uncertainty even for seasoned policymakers in India, especially when it comes to determining the direction of the central bank's key policy rate.

Uncertainty because of the US's steep tariffs on Indian imports and other global and domestic factors have made it tough to predict the trajectory of ...