CEA

Large companies must ensure timely release of payments to micro and small enterprises to ease their working capital needs and reduce cost of funds, Chief Economic Advisor V Anantha Nageswaran said on Tuesday. Speaking at the CII Annual Business Summit, Nageswaran said large companies should accept invoices presented by micro, small and medium enterprises and make payments on time. "Larger enterprises in the country have to pledge to contribute to relieving the working capital requirements of micro and small enterprises. Micro, small, and medium enterprises are the source of working capital for large enterprises. It should be the reverse. And because these enterprises have a much higher cost of capital," Nageswaran said. Freeing working capital for MSMEs would create a "successful, positive bandwidth" in terms of innovation, Nageswaran said. India has a huge pool of MSMEs with many struggling to scale up and integrate better into the global value chain. He said the government has ma

India's digital public infrastructure (DPI) has achieved world-class scale, but challenges relating to digital access, data governance, interoperability and cyber security remain areas of concern, Chief Economic Advisor V Anantha Nageswaran said on Friday. Addressing an ICRIER event on "Digital Public Infrastructure & Public Service Delivery", Nageswaran said large sections of the population, particularly the elderly, people living in areas with poor connectivity and those with low literacy and limited digital fluency, still face barriers in accessing digital services. "Digital infrastructure, however sophisticated, is not the same as digital inclusion in the fullest sense. The last great challenge of ensuring that those who most need services are also those who can most easily access them through digital means, that remains an ongoing effort," Nageswaran said. He said legislative and institutional framework in the area of data sharing and digital records is still ...

The CEA argued that India's substantial refining capacity significantly mitigates the challenges of its high crude oil import dependence

Chief Economic Advisor V Anantha Nageswaran on Saturday said India needs to create strategic buffers in the face of the "most difficult" energy shock that the country is facing amid the West Asia crisis. Nageswaran also said the rising prices of fertiliser and petroleum products globally due to the crisis will make it challenging to achieve the 4.3 per cent fiscal deficit target for the current fiscal, while below normal monsoon and pass-through of higher energy prices could lead to "potential inflation spike". He also said India has employment challenge emanating from AI, and there is a need to ensure that IT sector becomes more competitive and not lose jobs to AI, and instead create jobs that use AI within the IT sector or in other services. Speaking at the ICPP Growth Conference organised by the Ashoka University, Nageswaran said the current account deficit (CAD) in the current fiscal could rise to over 2 per cent of GDP, from less than 1 per cent in FY'26. "The ... priority for

CEA V Anantha Nageswaran calls for productivity gains to counter energy shocks from West Asia, highlights role of digital public infrastructure in building economic resilience

A government panel has proposed financial incentives to promote green switchgear adoption, citing high costs and evolving technology, and to reduce dependence on imports

Projects worth ₹5 lakh crore are underway to strengthen transmission capacity as India targets 500 GW non-fossil capacity, amid challenges such as right-of-way and supply constraints

Economy continues to maintain strong growth momentum, supported by broad-based activities, says CEA Nageswaran

CEA V Anantha Nageswaran said India must urgently align AI adoption with education reform and skill development, calling for political will and national commitment to harness its benefits

Nageswaran warned that without careful and calibrated action, rapid technological change could create social and economic instability

CEA V Anantha Nageswaran says India can grow 6.8-7.2% in FY27 despite global uncertainty, citing domestic reforms, resilient consumption and strong fundamentals

Economic Survey flags behaviour, not culture, as key to urban order, showing how rule-based metro systems shape civic discipline better than laws alone

Nageswaran called for mainstream banks to not merely be spectators to the process of formalisation of the economy but to actively absorb new proven borrowers into their core portfolios

CEA also flags low to medium feasibility for indigenising battery cells & cathode materials and solar wafers & cells

Chief Economic Adviser V Anantha Nageswaran on Wednesday said that quality, relevance and adaptability of higher education will play a key role in transforming India's demographic dividend into growth accelerator in next 20 years. Speaking at the CII Global Higher Education Summit here, he said, states hold the key to the next phase of higher education reform in India. He stressed on addressing shortage of teachers urgently through mechanisms such as professors of practice and also improving the quality of education. Other key priorities for states include a shift from control to stewardship, moving from input-based to outcome-based regulation, adopting an entrepreneurial approach in public administration, and financing institutions based on differentiated roles and outcomes. "India is at a demographic and economic inflection point. Over the next two decades, millions of young Indians will enter the working age population. Whether this demographic dividend becomes a growth ...

India's GDP growth saw a six-quarter high of 8.2% in Q2 FY2026, increasing over the 7.8% growth seen in the first quarter of this fiscal

Chief Economic Adviser V Anantha Nageswaran said India's growth outlook remains strong, with Q2 momentum boosting expectations that GDP will exceed 7 per cent and cross $4 trillion this fiscal year

Chief Economic Advisor V Anantha Nageswaran on Friday flagged the concentration of large and well-rated companies in the bond market for raising funds, and said there is a need to enable mid-sized firms to access markets "systematically and affordably". There is also a need to increase liquidity in the markets, and investors need to shed the tendency of holding papers till maturity, Nageswaran said. The "double-engine" of bond markets and bank funding will help provide the required financial support for a growing economy like India going forward, he said. Amid wider calls for self-reliance in the economic sphere, the academician-turned-policymaker made it clear that domestic money should "anchor" the funding in the Indian debt markets, and foreign flows should "complement" it. "The challenge today is not the absence of a debt market but its concentration. Large and highly rated firms raise capital with ease. The task ahead is to enable mid-sized corporates, infrastructure SPVs, sup

Nageswaran noted that the country should register growth and progress with the environment taken into account

India's chief economic adviser V. Anantha Nageswaran says IPOs are increasingly helping early investors exit rather than supporting long-term capital formation