Modi to brainstorm with economists at Niti Aayog Friday

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.