Description
Oxford University Press Economic Survey 2013-14 (2 Volume Set)
The Economic Survey sets the stage for the presentation of the Union Budget as it documents a comprehensive assessment / analysis by the Government of recent economic trends in the spirit of an exhaustive stock-taking of the state of the Indian economy. This year, an attempt has been made to add novelty to the document by making it less voluminous and presenting the statistical appendix in a separate volume. As per tradition, the first chapter presents a crisp overview of the state of the Indian economy and also details the outlook for the year 2014-15. The second chapter provides a glimpse of the issues and priorities for the Government. Subsequent chapters deal with each sector in depth. Since, the authors of the Survey deal with policy issues in related areas, their aspirations and first hand insights get captured in the wide range of economic issues that have been listed out in the document. Recent years have been challenging for the global economy. A steady recovery from the crisis of 2008-09 was hampered by subsequent developments including the recession in the Euro area that led many advanced economies to resort to unconventional monetary policies to boost economic activity. Such events, in an interconnected world, have complicated economic management in emerging economies. Even as initial signs of recovery in many advanced economies are visible, deceleration in growth in several emerging economies in recent years, prominently India and China, is not good news for a fledgling global recovery. Therefore, the Economic Survey 2013-14 conveys a sense of urgency about the course the economy needs to undertake not only to recapture the growth momentum fast, but to also ameliorate long-standing structural problems that undermine the economy's long-term potential. The Economic Survey is awaited by a large number of stakeholders that include policymakers, academicians, investors, and last but not least, students and the general public. Therefore, the authors of the Survey have always faced the task of balancing the demands of dispassionate economic analysis with the necessity of keeping the discussions accessible to the inquisitive reader interested in the Indian economy but relatively uninitiated to the intricacies of economic analysis. As in the earlier years, the authors have tried to walk this thin line with abundant caution and great sense of responsibility.