With Narendra Modi government's first full budget a few weeks away, the Prime Minister met with economists on Friday to explore opportunities and avenues to attract investments, create jobs and to finance the infrastructure development to help move India to a higher economic growth trajectory.
At the maiden meeting of NITI Aayog -- the think tank replacing the Nehruvian-era Planning Commission -- the Prime Minister and economists brainstormed ideas and Modi is expected to hold a meeting with chief ministers on Sunday.
"NITI Aayog had today organised a meeting with some very eminent economists with regard to the state of economy and steps required to boost investment, growth and even specific suggestions with regard to the Union Budget," Economic Times quoted Finance Minister Arun Jaitley as saying.
Jaitley remarked that the agenda for the meeting was concentrated on achieving a higher growth roadmap for the economy. He added that attracting investment, boosting domestic savings and the condition of agricultural sector and financing infrastructure were especially discussed at the meeting.
Another key discussion circled around the effective implementation of central government funded schemes, and the need to move millions of people from poverty.
The discussion was also attended by India's Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian, NITI Aayog's full-time members Bibek Debroy and V K Saraswat, Planning Minister Rao Inderjit Singh, Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha, ex-RBI governor Bimal Jalan, Subir Gokarn, Ashok Gulati and G N Bajpai.
Answering questions, the Finance Minister said that the government was not looking at giving statutory status to NITI Aayog and that government subsidy management was also discussed with economists.
