TN Economic Advisory Council to Have Rajan, Duflo, Drèze & Others

This was announced by Governor Banwarilal Purohit during his speech in the first session of the 16th Assembly.

The Economic Advisory Council would constitute (L-R) Nobel Laureate Esther Duflo, development economist Jean Drèze, and former RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan, among others.

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

Tamil Nadu announced its new Economic Advisory Council on Monday when the first session of the 16th legislative Assembly was held.

In his customary speech, Governor Banwarilal Purohit said that the Economic Advisory Council would constitute former RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan, Nobel Laureate Esther Duflo, former Chief Economic Adviser to Union government Arvind Subramanian, development economist Jean Drèze and former Union Finance Secretary S Narayan.

Who’s Who?

Prior to being the RBI Governor, Raghuram Rajan was the Chief Economic Adviser to the Union government in 2012. He is currently the Katherine Dusak Miller Distinguished Service Professor of Finance at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Nobel Laureate Esther Duflo, who won the prize in Economics along with Abhijit Banerjee and Michael Kremer, is a professor of Poverty Alleviation and Development Economics at MIT and co-founded the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab.

Arvind Subramanian succeeded Raghuram Rajan as Chief Economic Adviser. Currently, he is a visiting lecturer at Harvard’s Kennedy School and a non-resident senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

Jean Drèze is a professor at the Delhi School of Economics and at the Department of Economics in Ranchi University.

An IAS officer of the 1965 batch, S Narayan was formerly the Union Finance Secretary, and was Economic Adviser to the Prime Minister in 2003-04.

Govt to Revitalise State’s Economy

“Based on the recommendation of the council, the government will revitalise the state’s economy and ensure that benefits of economic growth reach all segments of society,” Governor Purohit said.

Outlining the newly elected DMK regime's policy, Governor Purohit on Monday said the Tamil Nadu government is fully committed to achieving greater autonomy for states.

The governor said the government would maintain a cordial relationship with the Union government as partners in the process of nation building in line with the policy of extending their hand in friendship, even as they speak up for their rights.

Purohit in his ceremonial address to the 16th assembly, his first after DMK formed the government after winning the April 6 assembly polls, said the government is guided by the spirit of the Dravidian movement and identifies social justice, gender equality, economic equity, opportunity for all through reservations and progress through education and social reforms as its core values.

“These values will drive every action, every legislation, every scheme, every initiative of this government,” he said.

As announced by Finance Minister P Thiaga Rajan earlier, the Governor said that a white paper on Tamil Nadu’s finances will be released within two weeks. The Governor reportedly said that this would be the first step to bring down overall debt burden and improve fiscal position.

(This story was originally published on The News Minute and has been republished with permission.)