Arvind Subramanian, a US based economist has been appointed as the governments’s new chief economic advisor by the prime minister Narendra Modi. The chief economic advisor post has been lying vacant since Raghuram Rajan vacated the Finance Ministry to join the Reserve Bank as Governor in September 4 th 2013. The development economist has worked closely with Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan when both were at the International Monetary Fund (IMF). He was recommended for the post by the Finance minister Arun Jaitley, a month ago.
The chief adviser is responsible for producing the annual Economic Survey – a document relating to the state of economy that supports drafting of the budget – and a half-year economic update that is to be presented to the parliament. This has added speculation to Jaitley’s budget speech on February.
Arvind Subramanian was educated in India and Britain and went on to serve at the IMF and at the forerunner to the World Trade Organization, before taking senior academic posts at Harvard and Johns Hopkins universities in the United States. He said that macro-economic stability and creating favourable conditions for investment will be his priorities. Previously he has criticised Indian government to derail WTO deal and also criticised Jaitley’s first July budget after BJP sweep the nation to power.
Source – Reuters
