Prime Minister Narendra Modi constituted an Economic Advisory Council on Monday, three years after coming to power, amid the government's endeavour to give a push to the growth which has witnessed a slowdown.
Headed by NITI Aayog member Bibek Debroy, the Economic Advisory Council includes NITI Aayog's Principal Advisor Ratan Watal as its member and economists Surjit Bhalla, Rathin Roy and Ashima Goyal as part-time members, according to an official statement.
"The five-member council consists of economists of high repute and eminence," said the statement.
According to an official note, the council will advise PM Modi on economic issues. They are also expected to address “issues of macroeconomic importance and presenting views to the prime minister, it said, adding, "this could be either suo-motu or on reference from the prime minister or anyone else."
Terms of reference of the EAC would be to "analyse any issue, economic or otherwise, referred to it by the prime minister and advising him thereon," the statement said.
Its terms of reference also includes attending to “any other task as may be desired by the prime minister from time to time,” the statement said.
Formation of the EAC by the prime minister comes over three years after he assumed power and at a time when the GDP slipped to 5.7 percent in the April-June quarter, the lowest since May 2014.
...whatever steps are required to change the (economic) environment, we are certainly in the process of addressing that.Arun Jaitley, Finance Minister
The opposition has been attributing the slowdown to last year's demonetisation, an argument which the government rejects.
Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh last week said the economy was on a "downhill path" because of the "adventure" of demonetisation which, he said, was not required at all, either technically or economically.
Singh, as prime minister, had an EAC headed by former RBI Governor C Rangarajan, who resigned in May 2014 after the UPA government lost power.
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