{"id":34908,"date":"2018-10-31T14:22:46","date_gmt":"2018-10-31T08:52:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=34908"},"modified":"2018-10-31T14:22:46","modified_gmt":"2018-10-31T08:52:46","slug":"pms-economic-advisory-body-returns-at-a-time-of-both-continuity-and-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/pms-economic-advisory-body-returns-at-a-time-of-both-continuity-and-change\/","title":{"rendered":"PM\u2019s economic advisory body returns \u2013 at a time of both continuity and change:\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/explained\/pms-economic-advisory-body-returns-at-a-time-of-both-continuity-and-change-4862770\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">PM\u2019s economic advisory body returns \u2013 at a time of both continuity and change<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Brief overview<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The article talks about the history and evolution of Prime Minister\u2019s Economic Advisory Council (PMEAC)<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>The first PMEAC under Indira Gandhi<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">After returning to power in 1980, <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Indira Gandhi<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> faced formidable economic challenges.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The impact of the global oil shock and drought was reflected in a decline in national income and soaring prices.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To arrest the slide and set the economy on the path to stability and growth, Indira brought in Sukhamoy Chakravarty, who had, in the mid-70s, headed the Planning Commission\u2019s Policy Perspective Division<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In its early days, the Council had the famed economist K N Raj, besides C Rangarajan and Vijay Kelkar.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>The PMEAC after PM Indira Gandhi and through the 1990s<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sukhamoy Chakravarty continued in the post even after <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Rajiv Gandhi<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> succeeded Indira in 1984.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Rajiv Gandhi government acknowledged the input of the council which had flagged the emerging faultlines and warned of a fiscal imbalance.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Manmohan Singh headed the Council briefly when Chandra Shekhar was Prime Minister.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">After Singh, Bimal Jalan headed the Council.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Under the P V Narasimha Rao government, of which Manmohan Singh was Finance Minister, the Council held only a few meetings.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>PMEAC under PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The economy was again in trouble after the Asian crisis.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">PM Vajpayee decided to chair the council himself in 1998.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A 12-member Council for Trade and Industry was also appointed.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">His EAC had a galaxy of economists including the former RBI Governor I.G. Patel and P.N. Dhar<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Through this period, the Finance Ministry remained dominant in economic policymaking.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>PMEAC under PM Manmohan Singh<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In 2004, Manmohan Singh got his former RBI colleague Rangarajan to head the PMEAC, which was now more compact, with fewer than half dozen members.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Rangarajan had the status of cabinet minister \u2014 and with a powerful Finance Ministry under P Chidambaram and later <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Pranab Mukherjee, and a Planning Commission headed by Montek Singh Ahluwalia, the Council was seen as the advisory gro<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">up best equipped to provide independent advice to the PM.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">During 2004-14, the Council often brought out its own review of the economy, besides reports on a range of issues.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Manmohan Singh\u2019s Council was the most influential in the over three-decade history of the institution.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It drew its strength from the confidence and trust that the economist PM had in the Council head.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>PMEAC reconstituted under PM Modi<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">40 months into the government\u2019s term, a new PMEAC has been announced, headed by NITI Aayog member Bibek Debroy, to advise the Prime Minister at a time of increasing concern over the economic slowdown<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The revived Council \u2014 with Surjit Bhalla, Rathin Roy and Ashima Goyal as members and former finance secretary Ratan Watal as Secretary \u2014 will analyse economic and other issues that the Prime Minister refers to it.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Like in the past, the Council has been revived at a time when the economy faces headwinds.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The pressure for quick fixes will be high as 2019 isn\u2019t far.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>PM\u2019s economic advisory body returns \u2013 at a time of both continuity and change:\u00a0 Brief overview The article talks about the history and evolution of Prime Minister\u2019s Economic Advisory Council (PMEAC) The first PMEAC under Indira Gandhi After returning to power in 1980, Indira Gandhi faced formidable economic challenges. The impact of the global oil&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/pms-economic-advisory-body-returns-at-a-time-of-both-continuity-and-change\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">PM\u2019s economic advisory body returns \u2013 at a time of both continuity and change:\u00a0<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34908","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-test-1","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1704816845},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34908","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34908"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34908\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}