Budget 2021 – Economic Survey LIVE Updates | Economic Survey to be announced today

ttee on Parliamentary Affairs (CCPA) also recommended that the budget session be held from January 29 to February 15. The second part of the budget session will be held from March 8 to April 8. According to Union Minister of Parliamentary Affairs Pralhad Joshi, the Budget Session will commence from January 29 and the first part of it will conclude on February 15. "In the first part, Budget and President’s address will be there, necessary bills will be taken and there will be question hour as well as zero hour," he told ANI.

Economic Survey 2021

The flagship, annual document of the Finance Ministry (presented by the Ministry's Department of Economic Affairs led by the CEA), reviews the developments that took place in the Indian economy over the past financial year. It is usually tabled a day ahead of the Budget (on January 31), but this may be adjusted this year, as per reports, because February 1 (the day the Budget is to be announced) is a Monday.

The Economic Survey 2021 will be of particular significance as the country comes out of the pandemic-hit year. The First Advance estimates put out by the government suggests the economy may contract by 7.7 percent.

Despite implementing one of the strictest lockdowns followed by a plethora of measures to boost the economy, there are no official estimates or projection on the quantum of damage to the economy so far. The Economic Survey may also outline plans to put the economy back on track to achieve the $5 trillion goals the government had set in 2019.

Economic Survey 2021 - Expectations

The Economic Survey usually provides detailed account of the state of the economy, prospects and the policy challenges. It carries sectoral overviews and comments on reform measures that are required. The survey’s outlook serves as a marker about future policy moves. It also puts out economic growth forecasts, giving out detailed reasons why it believes the economy will expand faster or decelerate. But these four factors, may be the most anticipated this year: GDP growth, jobs creation, GST and nudge theory or behavioural economics.

Budget 2021 - Expectations

COVID-19 and its spread have left a devastating trail of destruction across the economic landscape, blowing into smithereens the very framework of orthodox fiscal policy planning. The lockdowns and the prolonged restrictions have forced many a company to shut or curtail operations, lowering the government's tax collections. Gross domestic product (GDP)—the total value of goods and services produced in the country—fell 23.9 percent in April-June 2020, and then again by 7.5 per cent in July-September.

India has now slipped into a technical recession, which takes place when real or inflation-adjusted GDP contracts in two successive quarters. From being toasted as an engine for global growth with the status of the world’s fastest-growing major economy, India’s GDP has fallen for two successive quarters. The bigger question now is: how long will the impact last? Will it last for months or for years, if social distancing measures need to be kept in place for protracted periods?

Expectations are running high on the Budget 2021-22 for “big-bang measures." The Union Budget may just be the right occasion to be a little more courageous and to press the foot on the accelerator.

Full coverage of Budget 2021