Ten focus areas for Bibek Debroy-led Economic Advisory Council

The Bibek Debroy-led panel decided to focus on economic growth, job creation, informal sector and integration, fiscal framework, monetary policy, public expenditure among others.
Economic Advisory Council headed by Bibek Debroy
Economic Advisory Council headed by Bibek Debroy

NEW DELHI: The newly constituted Economic Advisory Council (EAC) to the Prime Minister will focus on 10 areas to bring the country’s economy back on track. The EAC also proposed to institute an Economy Track Monitor to track effective key economic parameters.

In its first formal meeting here on Wednesday, the Bibek Debroy-led panel decided to focus on economic growth, job creation, informal sector and integration, fiscal framework, monetary policy, public expenditure, institutions of economic governance, agriculture and animal husbandry, patterns of consumption and production, and social sector.

With the EAC’s first meeting coming soon after the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank lowered growth forecasts for India, the panel sought to downplay the projections, saying forecasts of the two multilateral agencies were proved to be wrong in the past.
“IMF projections are 80 percent wrong, while World Bank’s projections are 65 percent wrong,” said Rathin Roy, member of EAC.

The economic advisory panel also rejected claims of large-scale job loss in the country, saying such conclusions don’t have the backing of hard data. “Whether we like it or not, we don’t have good data on employment. In a country like India, you cannot get good data on employment and jobs from enterprises. The Labour Bureau’s survey covers less than 1.5 percent of total employment. The last National Sample Survey Organisation data is of 2011-12 only,” said Bibek Debroy, chairman, EAC.

‘Banks need more time for Basel-III’

Banks in India, reeling under stress due to demonetis­a­tion and GST rollout, would need more time to implement Basel-III norms, according to a report by SBI Ecowrap. The implementation of the global risk norms may, therefore, be delayed, the report suggested

DT collections up 16% during April-Sept

Robust advance tax collections pushed up direct tax mop-up to C3.86 lakh crore for the first six months of the current financial year, a 15.8 percent increase over the year-ago period, the finance ministry said on Wednesday

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