Chinmaya IAS Academy – Current Affairs Chinmaya IAS Academy – Current Affairs
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‘Place of study a non-issue to pick CEA’
Former Reserve Bank of India governor Bimal Jalan, who currently heads the committee tasked with selecting the next chief economic advisor (CEA), said his committee was focussed on selecting the best person for the job, a clear signal that the panel wasn’t going to be influenced by the recent controversy over whether the people picked to fill key economic policy positions had studied in India or abroad. Mr. Jalan, however, declined to specify a time frame for the announcement of a new CEA. The former central banker was speaking to The Hindu ahead of the release of his new book “India Ahead: 2025 and Beyond”. Several members of the ruling BJP have expressed reservations about the advisability of hiring foreign educated economists in the government. Mr. Jalan, for his part, was emphatic that it was not an issue for him. “Coalition governments in the past did take bold measures but that was at a time of crisis. You could of course take strong measures like liberalisation and Pokhran II, but now you need a basic transformation to take the country forward. For example, transferring wider governance powers from the Centre to the States, who don’t have commensurate budgetary powers. Centre can announce a policy, for example if you announce Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) or the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), and put forward a budget, disburse that budget to various States depending on what they have been able to achieve. Like minimum wages, that should be left to the State governments to decide. If we can launch a programme today, with a majority government in power, it can adopt measures which were difficult in the coalition era, because of coalition and also a hangover of before,” he said.
Source : https://www.theindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/important-to-get-best-talent-jalan/article25185604.ece
