After Economic Panel, PM Modi Shifts Focus on CCEA Ahead of Union Budget 2019; Agrarian Sector Revival on Cards

New Delhi, June 23: With days remaining for the Union Budget to be tabled in the Monsoon Session 2019, Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) and Cabinet meeting are scheduled to be held tomorrow in Parliament Annexe New Building. This meeting comes a day after PM Modi met more than 40 economists and industry experts to review the macroeconomic situation of the country in New Delhi.

The meeting between the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) and Union Cabinet members with PM Modi is stated to be serious, after economists and top sectoral gave their vital suggestion for the revival of the agrarian sector of the country. Also, discussion to develop trade, education, health, employment, water resources and exports were taken place.  PM Narendra Modi Chairs Economic Panel Meet Ahead of Union Budget 2019; Agrarian Crisis, Economical Revival Schemes Main Agenda

Apart from economists and top sectoral experts, Saturday's meeting was attended by Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal, Minister of State (independent charge) for Statistics and Programme Implementation Rao Inderjeet Singh and NITI Aayog personnel. Informing about the minutes of the meeting, PMO released a statement stating, "During the session, participants shared their views, in five distinct groups, on the economic themes of macro economy and employment, agriculture and water resources, exports, education and health."

Considering the series of meeting between the Prime Minister and sectoral experts to boost the economy of the country, it is an action after the labour ministry released a report of rise in the unemployment rate. The Labour Ministry on May 31 even stated that the unemployment rate is 45-year-high in India. Following this, PM Modi constituted two Cabinet Committee to tackle the situation in the first week of June itself.

But the embarrassment arrived after former chief economic advisor Arvind Subramanian claimed that Indian ruling regimes had overestimated GDP growth by 2.5 per cent annually between 2011-12 and 2016-17. Though the claims have been quashed by the central think tank - PMEAC - claiming that Subramanian lacks proper methodology and he had made a hurried attempt to draw conclusions about India's complex economy and its evolution. Arvind Subramanian's GDP Overestimation Remarks Lack Proper Methodology, Claims PM Modi's Economic Panel

Also, reports of over 12,000 farmers committing suicide in Maharashtra making the headline is a bad signal for the ruling dispensation both in state and Centre. With the next meeting with CCEA scheduled on Monday, it is expected that recommendations by policymakers and think tank experts' suggestions would be incorporated while drafting the Union Budget for Monsoon Session 2019.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jun 23, 2019 05:07 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).