Prime Minister Narendra Modi will interact with leading economists and sectoral experts on Friday to deliberate on measures that may be included in the upcoming Budget for promoting growth, amid uncertainty on multiple fronts caused by COVID-19.
The virtual meeting is being organised by the government think-tank Niti Aayog. It will also be attended by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Minister of State for Finance Anurag Thakur, Niti Aayog Vice Chairman Rajiv Kumar and Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant.
Top economists and experts who will participate in the meeting include Arvind Panagariya, K V Kamath, Rakesh Mohan, Shankar Acharya, Shekhar Shah, Arvind Virmani and Ashok Lahri.
“The Prime Minister will meet economists on Friday to seek their inputs for the next budget,” a government official said on condition of anonymity.
The upcoming Union Budget is likely to be presented on February 1, 2021.
India’s GDP is estimated to contract by a record 7.7 per cent during 2020-21 fiscal as the COVID-19 pandemic severely hit the key manufacturing and services segments, as per data released by the National Statistical Office (NSO) on Thursday.
According to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), India’s economy is projected to contract 7.5 per cent in the current fiscal ending March 31, 2021, while the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank have estimated the contraction at 10.3 per cent and 9.6 per cent, respectively.
The economy contracted by a massive 23.9 per cent in the first quarter and 7.5 per cent in the second quarter of this fiscal on account of the COVID-19 pandemic.
India’s economic growth stood at an estimated 4.2 per cent in 2019-20.
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