Prime Minister Narendra Modi has called for faster economic development to meet rising aspirations of the people.

Addressing the first meeting at the newly constituted NITI (National Institution for Transforming India) Aayog on Friday, he said that India must develop fast, taking advantage of current global environment, to meet the aspirations of the people. The meeting was called to seek views from the Economists on Budget. This is the first time the Prime Minister is calling a meeting of economists on Budget. The Finance Minister Arun Jaitley held such a meeting last time.

Modi spoke of the Government’s recent initiatives, including the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana, direct cash transfer of LPG subsidy, and Swachh Bharat. Talking about NITI Aayog, he noted that one of the objectives of the newly constituted body was to establish a dynamic institutional mechanism where eminent individuals outside the Government system could contribute to policy making.

The economists emphasised the need for the Government to work towards high growth, predictable tax regime, fiscal prudence and rapid infrastructure development. A large number of other suggestions were also made on various sectors of the economy. Economists present at the interaction were Vijay Kelkar, Nitin Desai, Bimal Jalan, Rajiv Lall, R Vaidyanathan, Subir Gokarn, Parthasarathi Shome, P. Balakrishnan, Rajiv Kumar, Ashok Gulati, Mukesh Butani and G N Bajpai.

The meeting was also attended by Jaitley besides Vice Chairman of NITI Aayog Arvind Panagariya and Members, Bibek Debroy and VK Saraswat.

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