Moderator – A.K. Bhattacharya, Editorial Director, Business Standard

Panelists – Tarun Bajaj (Former Revenue Secretary), Dr. TCA Anant (Former Chief Statistician), Kavita Rao (Director NIPFP), Pronab Sen (Former Chief Statistician)

Backdrop:

The upcoming fiscal year 2024-25 comes with a unique set of backdrops. It’s an election year so the February budget is vote on account and the full budget would be presented post-election. The fiscal 24-25 would also be the first truly post-pandemic one. Pandemic-induced volatility in key indicators has stabilized and both the Indian and the global economy have performed better than expected in 2023. Inflation in major developed economies has slowed down and the central banks globally might start loosening the rates. On the other hand, the external geopolitical environment remain challenging, and issues ranging from wars in the Middle East and Europe to slowing global trade present new challenges. It’s also an election year beyond India and elections in the US, UK, and Taiwan bring a new set of uncertainties. All of it leaves us at an important junction. It is therefore important to ask- what’s a realistic trajectory for post-pandemic medium-term growth for India and how to face important internal and external challenges?

It is in this background, that the panel would look at the upcoming vote on account and beyond. It will focus on a wide range of issues including:

a. What’s the state of revenues and public finances (both at the central and state level)? What does it mean for the next few years?
b. How have key macroeconomic indicators performed in the past few quarters? Where are they headed? What policy responses do we need to get at a sustained high-level growth rate?
c. State of private sector investment and where it’s headed? What does the private sector expect from policymakers?
e. How should the government be thinking about economic uncertainties and risks coming from external factors?

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