How far did Nirmala Sitharaman’s Budget advance the goal set by the Economic Survey? | The Indian Express

How far did Nirmala Sitharaman’s Budget advance the goal set by the Economic Survey? | The Indian Express

Written by P Chidambaram |Updated: July 7, 2019 7:23:20 am

P Chidambaram is former Finance minister of India.

How far did Nirmala Sitharaman’s Budget advance the goal set by the Economic Survey?

The government has chosen to do incremental reforms. The 13 economists — all Indians or of Indian origin — will be disappointed. So will be many who were rooting for radical reforms.

Modi 2.0 government has taken office when the decline has become steeper. (Express photo: Ganesh Shirsekar/File)

Five years ago, when Dr Arvind Subramanian, then Chief Economic Adviser, presented his first Economic Survey (2014-15), he said, “India has reached a sweet spot — rare in the history of nations — in which it could finally be launched on a double-digit medium-term growth strategy.” He did not stay the full term of Modi 1.0 government to acknowledge that the government had failed to deliver on that promise. It was left to his successor Dr Krishnamurthy Subramanian to admit that Modi 1.0 government delivered an average GDP growth of only 7.5 per cent over the five-year period.