Prime Minister Modi constitutes Economic Advisory Council; to be headed by Bibek Debroy

In the face of an Economic slowdown, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has constituted an Economic Advisory Council. Dr. Bibek Debroy, the Chairman of NITI Aayog will lead the council. The decision comes on the day Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley admitted that the Gross Domestic Product (GDP)had dipped in the last quarter.

The five-member council includes Dr. Surjit Bhalla, Dr Rathin Roy, Dr. Ashima Goyal, Ratan Watal, Principal advisor, NITI Aayog. The council is expected to analyze any issue, economic or otherwise, referred to it by the Prime Minister and advise him thereon.

A note from the Press Information bureau added that the council will address issues of macroeconomic importance and present views thereon to Prime Minister Modi. This could either work on a sup-moto basis or on referral by the Prime minister himself.

Members of the council:

Dr. Bibek Debroy: Member of the NITI Aayog. An economist who was educated at Ramakrishna Mission School, Narendrapur, Delhi School of Economics and Trinity College, Cambridge. From March 2007 to January 2015, he was professor at Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi. Since its conception in January 2015, Dr Debroy has been a member of NITI Aayog, the think tank of Indian Government. As the head of the panel on restructuring railways, Dr Debroy brought out a final report seeking to appoint an independent regulator while doing away with Rail Budget altogether.

Dr. Surjit Bhalla: Chairman and MD of Oxus Investments, a New Delhi-based economic research, asset management, and emerging-markets advisory firm. Dr Bhalla holds a PhD in Economics from Princeton University and a Master in Public and International Affairs from Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton University, and a BSEE degree from Purdue University.

Dr Rathin Roy: Director of National Institute of Public Finance and Policy (NIPFP), New Delhi, since May 2013. On invitation from the Government of India, he served as the Economic Advisor to the Thirteenth Finance Commission and is also a part-member of the Seventh Central Pay Commission. he has worked as an Economic Diplomat and Policy
Advisor with the United Nations Development Program, with a particular focus on emerging economies. Dr. Roy holds a Ph.D and an M.Phil in Economics from the University of Cambridge, an MA in Economics from the Jawaharlal Nehru University and BA (Hons) in Economics from St. Stephen's College, University of Delhi.

Dr. Ashima Goyal: Holds a Ph.D. (Economics) from Bombay University and M.Phil from Delhi School of Economics. Dr. Ashima Goyal is Professor of Economics at the Indira Gandhi Institute for Development Research. Goyal is widely published in institutional and open economy macroeconomics, international finance and governance, with more than a hundred articles in national and international journals. Dr Goyal was selected as one of the four most powerful women in economics, a thought leader, by Business Today (2008), and was the first Professor P.R. Brahmananda Memorial Research Grant Awardee for a study on History of Monetary Policy in India since Independence (2011), which was published by Springer in 2014.

Ratan Watal: Former finance Secretary who was appointed as Niti Aayog's Principal Advisor in 2016. Watal is a retired IAS officer of Andhra Pradesh cadre. He headed the Ratan Watal Committee for Digital Payments in 2016. The 11-member committee was notified by the Union Finance Ministry to review existing payment systems in the country and recommend appropriate measures for encouraging Digital Payments.

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