Modi to take stock of economy at NITI Aayog meet tomorrow

Meeting assumes significance in view of RBI lowering the country's growth forecast to 7.1% in FY17

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will take stock of the economy with experts at NITI Aayog tomorrow against the backdrop of currency crunch post demonetisation and discuss ways to speed up growth.

"The theme of tomorrow's meeting is 'Economic Policy Reform, Road Ahead'. The Prime Minister will make opening remarks. There are 15 invitees who will make their presentations before the Prime Minister," a senior government official said.

The meeting assumes significance in view of various multilateral agencies and RBI lowering growth forecast for the current fiscal. RBI has reduced the economic growth forecast to 7.1 per cent from 7.6 per cent in its monetary policy review earlier this month.

Multilateral funding body Asian Development Bank (ADB) too slashed growth projection to 7 per cent for the current fiscal, from its earlier 7.4 per cent due to the impact of demonetisation on economic activities.

Indian economy expanded by 7.1 per cent and 7.3 per cent in first and second quarters of 2016-17.

Economists, including former Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia, have raised concerns that demonetisation will disrupt the economy and pull down GDP growth rate for this fiscal by up to two percentage points.

The official said the Prime Minister will also take stock of various initiatives of NITI Aayog to promote digital economy like Lucky Grahak Yojana and Digi Dhan Vyapaar Yojana to incentivise digital payments.

The estimated expenditure on the first phase of the schemes (up to April 14, 2017) is likely to be Rs 340 crore.