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Explained: Economic Survey and its significance

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is presenting the Economic Survey for Financial Year 2021-22 on Monday (January 31) soon after the President’s address to both the houses of the Parliament.

Explained: Economic Survey and its significance
Explained: Economic Survey and its significance

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Published : Jan 31, 2022, 10:38 AM IST

New Delhi: The Economic Survey is presented a day before the presentation of the Union Budget. The Survey, which is usually authored by the Chief Economic Advisor, contains detailed statistics about the country’s economy about the current financial year and also contains the policy direction for the future.

The first economic survey was presented for FY 1950-51. Initially, the economic survey was presented along with the Union Budget but from 1964 onwards the economic survey was presented a day before the Union Budget with the only exception last year when it was presented two days before the Union Budget.

Last year, the economic survey was presented on Friday (January 29) and the Parliament was closed for the weekend on January 30 and 31. Usually, Economic Survey is divided into two parts, volume one and volume two, which are accompanied by a statistical appendix. While the first part of the economic survey contains economic ideas, big policy issues, the challenges facing the Indian economy, among other things, the second volume is a data-heavy document that deals with the state of the economy with key macro-economic indicators.

For example, last year’s economic survey presented by then Chief Economic Advisor Krishnamurthy Subramanian talked about his ideas such as saving lives and livelihoods amidst a once-in-a-century crisis and whether growth leads to debt sustainability or not. K Subramanian also questioned India's sovereign credit ratings as assigned by credit rating agencies and other ongoing reform processes with a strong focus on the healthcare sector which took the centre stage due to the outbreak of the Covid-19 global pandemic.

On the other hand, the second part shares important macro-economy data such as the size of the GDP, estimated growth rate, other fiscal developments, data about the external sector, details of monetary management, price and inflation data. The second volume also talked about ideas such as sustainable development and climate change and status of agriculture and food management, industry and infrastructure, services sector, social infrastructure, employment and human development.

However, there are reports that the Economic Survey for FY 2021-22 will have only one volume against the usual two volumes as the Chief Economic Advisor Krishnamurthy Subramanian returned to academics in December last year after completing his three-year tenure. This year’s economic survey is authored by the Principal Economic Advisor Sanjeev Sanyal as the new Chief Economic Advisor V Anantha Nageswaran was appointed just two days ago on January 28. Nageswaran, however, will address the media after the economic survey is tabled by the finance minister in the Parliament.

Also read:Union Budget: All you need to know about economic terms of the budget

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