The first meeting of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council was held today. This Council was created to afford an opportunity for a policy dialogue on crucial economic issues between the Prime Minister and Members of the Council. The Council comprises of the following:

Dr. I.G. Patel
Prof. P.N. Dhar
Dr. Montek Singh Ahluwalia
Dr. Arjun Sengupta
Dr. Kirit Parikh
Dr. Amaresh Bagchi
Dr. Ashok Desai
Shri G.V. Ramakrishna
Shri Brajesh Mishra, Principal Secretary to PM
Shri N.K. Singh, Secretary, PMO, Member-Secretary

2. The Finance Minister, the Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission, the Finance Secretary and the Governor, Reserve Bank of India also participated as special invitees.

3. The Prime Minister chaired the first meeting of the Council and made certain initial observations to set out the broad issues which required immediate attention.

4. Thereafter, the members of the Council made comments and suggestions on issues that need to be addressed both in the immediate term and over a longer period for enabling India to achieve a high rate of economic development.

5. The Council identified the following five Themes on which more intensive work was necessary:

• Accelerating growth in agriculture.

• Long-term fiscal policy and Fiscal viability.

• Monetary Policy and Price stability.

Theme D

• Industry: stimulating growth;
• Industrial restructuring and Disinvestment policies.

• International perspectives - The changing dynamics;
• Balance of Payments and management of the External Sector.

6. For enabling the Policy papers to be prepared, interaction of the members of the Council with the concerned Ministries/Departments would be necessary and they would provide all the assistance and data to them.

7. The PMO would facilitate the aforesaid interaction with Ministries/Departments.

8. The Policy papers would be prepared, alongwith the recommendations for further action, preferably within 30 days for further consideration by the Council.