NEW DELHI: With the Chief Economic Advisor KV Subramanian set to table his maiden Economic Survey in Parliament on Thursday, a series of reports indicate that maintenance of high growth is not going to be a smooth ride for the government.
Deficient rainfalls in large parts of the country, coupled with a looming water crisis, could accentuate farm sector distress, despite the many schemes launched by the government to fix agrarian crisis. The manufacturing sector is lagging behind; slowdown in consumption could further take some steam off the GDP; revival of jobs remains a long-pending agenda.
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Among the industries, infrastructure sectors such as power, real estate, telecom, coal and aviation are already struggling. If corporate investment is any benchmark of India Inc’s confidence, the same is down to its lowest in 15 years, despite some bold policies from part of the government. While financial sector has left the worst behind, the ongoing liquidity crisis among NBFCs is a laggard.
In view of all these issues, it would be interesting to see how many of them figure in the Economic Survey prepared by the CEA. While the details have been kept closely under the wraps, insiders claim that the much-awaited document is likely to feature those issues Subramanian has been vocal about: economic slowdown, lack of minimum wages, NBFCs and a fresh approach towards agrarian crisis.
Before his appointment as the government’s Chief Economic Advisor, Subramanian has been finance professor at ISB Hyderabad and has also worked as a consultant with JPMorgan Chase in New York. He has done PhD under the mentorship of former RBI governor Raghuram Rajan and has co-authored a paper with former RBI deputy governor Viral Acharya on the state of India’s public sector banks.
“Looking forward with excitement to table my first — and the new government’s first — Economic Survey in Parliament on Thursday (July 4, 2019),” Subramanian tweeted on July 2.
The flagship document, a snapshot of the Indian economy traditionally tabled a day before the Budget, is prepared by the Department of Economic Affairs under the Ministry of Finance, and is released under the guidance of CEA.