PM Modi to hold pre-Budget meeting with economists, experts on Jan 13

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hold a meeting with economists and experts across various sectors on Friday, January 13. This is the customary pre–Budget meeting that PM Modi holds with economists and experts to discuss measures needed to be taken up in the Budget. Budget 2023-24 is scheduled to be presented on February 1.

According to sources, the meeting will be attended by a host of top economists in the country, representatives from private equity, venture capital funds, and also top honchos of the corporate sector across various sectors of the economy.

It may be noted that in the league of the pre-Budget interactions, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has already chaired meeting with the chief secretaries of the states focusing on the steps needed to be taken to strengthen the Centre–State partnership and budgetary measures needed for the same.

The interactions come at a time when the Indian economy is slated to grow at a rate of 7% in the current financial year as per the first advance estimates of national income released by the government earlier this week. Government's economic growth estimate for the fiscal is marginally higher than the Reserve Bank of India's projection of 6.8% GDP growth in the current fiscal.

It may be noted that the World Bank too had pegged the Indian growth at 6.9% from its earlier projection of 6.5% for the fiscal. IMF, meanwhile, expects the Indian economy to grow at 6.8%, while also cautioning of a debt sustainability risk.

The challenges to the Indian economy include global spillovers with the monetary tightening in the US and the rest of the world and slowing global growth, which will impact Indian exports. One of the key challenges on the domestic front is lacklustre investment from the private sector in the economy.