Business
Modi to brainstorm with economists at Niti Aayog Friday
New Delhi, Feb 3
With the first full-fledged
budget of the Narendra Modi-led government due Feb 28, the prime
minister, who is also chairman of the newly-constituted NITI Aayog, has
convened a meeting of eminent experts on Friday to discuss the state of
the economy and invite suggestions on the upcoming budget.
Finance
Minister Arun Jaitley, Planning Minister Rao Indrajit Singh, Minister
of State for Finance Jayant Sinha and chief economic adviser Arvind
Subramanian will also attend the meeting, the Niti Aayog said in a
statement here.
The prime minister has also convened another
meeting, the first of the Governing Council of the NITI Aayog, on Feb 8,
the statement added.
The meeting will also be attended by NITI
Aayog vice-chairman Arvind Panagariya and full-time members Bibek Debroy
and V.K. Saraswat besides senior officials from the Prime Minister's
Office, the NITI Aayog and the finance ministry.
The governing
council meeting is expected to provide suggestions on setting efficient
processes and mechanism of interaction between the Centre and the
states, the statement said.
"A core objective of NITI is to
strengthen cooperative federalism. Hence the consultative meeting with
the CMs of states and lt. governors, which was convened by the prime
minister on Dec 7, 2014, has played an important role in shaping the
objectives, functions and structure of NITI," it added.