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Official Document: Economic Survey 2016-17

The Economic Survey 2016-17 was tabled in Parliament on January 31, 2017. The Chief Econiomic Adviser, Arvind Subramanian, notes in the Preface that "for the first time the Economic Survey has embraced Big Data" and has mined data "to shed new light on the flow of goods and people within India." It also "produces the first estimate of the flow of goods across states within India, based on analysing transactions level data provided by the Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN)", and "furnishes exciting new evidence on the flows of migrants within India, based on detailed origin-destination passenger data provided by the Ministry of Railways and on a new methodology for analysing Census data."

I. Introduction

1.1 The Economic Survey of 2014-15 spoke about the sweet spot for the Indian economy that could launch India onto a trajectory of sustained growth of 8-10 per cent. Last year’s Survey assessed that "for now, but not indefinitely, that sweet spot is still beckoningly there." This year’s stock-taking suggests that shifts in the underlying vision will be needed to overcome the major challenges ahead, thereby accelerating growth,expanding employment opportunities, and achieving social justice (Chapter 2 in this Survey). In the aftermath of demonetisation,and because cyclical developments will make economic management harder, articulating and embracing those shifts will be critical toensuring that that sweet spot is enduring not evanescent.

(The full text of the Economic Survey can be accessed at the following link.)

Related Links:

Editorial, 2017. " Demonetisation’s long shadow ", The Hindu , February 1.

Editorial, 2017. " A fuzzy outlook ", The Hindu BusinessLine , February 1.

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