The government will extend the term of Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanian by one year till October 2018, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said today.
Subramanian, a Senior Fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, was appointed India's Chief Economic Adviser (CEA) in October 2014. His term was for three years, which was to end on October 16.
Interacting with reporters today, Jaitley said "he (Subramanian) gets extension for one year".
The BJP-led NDA government's 5-year term ends in May 2019.
According to sources, a formal announcement will be made after all procedures are complete.
The CEA is usually the main go-to person for advice for the finance minister on macro-economic matters, and primary responsibilities, among others, include authoring the mid-year analysis and the Economic Survey.
Subramanian's predecessor was Raghuram Rajan, who quit the position in September 2013 after his appointment as the Governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
Speaking after the government's decision, Subramanian said the economy is facing multiple headwinds and there is a need to attack them on various fronts.
"We have lots of challenges ahead... we have seen growth slowing down and investment not picking up. So, we have to attack this problem on many fronts -- exchange rate, public investments while maintaining macroeconomic stability," he said.
On the appreciation of the rupee, he said all emerging economies face this problem, with a surge in capital inflow putting pressure on the exchange rate.
Subramanian graduated from St Stephen's College, Delhi, and got an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. He obtained M.Phil and D.Phil from the University of Oxford in the UK.
Subramanian is credited with introducing various out of the box ideas, including Universal Basic Income (UBI) that generated a lot of debate -- both within and outside the government.
In 2015, he introduced the phrase JAM -- Jan Dhan, Aadhaar, Mobile being implemented by the government as part of the direct benefit transfer and expanding financial inclusion.
Over the past two years, much progress has been made in spreading JAM across India's economy, also because of the push towards digital payments following demonetisation.
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