The Economic Survey is the flagship annual document which we all look forward to. In the recent past, it has lived up to the expectation of being an indispensable guide on performance, challenges and prospects of the Indian economy.

The survey is a vital intellectual resource. As the recent document of 2021 states in its preface, it is “a collaborative effort of all ministries, departments of Government of India, the prodigious resource base of the Indian Economic Service Officers, valuable inputs of researchers, consultants, and think tanks, both within and outside the Government, and the consistent support of all officials of the Economic Division, Department of Economic Affairs.”

With this kind of resourcefulness and value, Economic Survey ideally should have reflected, in some way or the other, in the annual budget. However, its imprints in the budget or post-budget discourses are conspicuous by their absence. In any case, with only one day gap between release of the survey document and the presentation of the annual Budget, one wonders how the budget could be a beneficiary of the insights of the Economic Survey.

As it is, the discussions, debates and narratives surrounding the Economic Survey are very short-lived, of one-two days only. With some coverage in the news and electronic media, and the chief economic adviser (CEA), the architect of the document, giving interviews, are all that attention the survey gets during the time. The fervor of big budget presentation, on the following day, obviously is too high to overwhelm everything, including the survey. 

As a result, one fails to ‘chew’ and ‘digest’ the contents the way, as the philosopher Francis Bacon advises, one needs to do with a classic book.

Need to widen time-gap between the survey and the budget

Given the new ideas and perspectives the survey brings to the fore, there is a strong case for its release at least one
month prior to the presentation of the budget.  It should preferably be released on January 1 every year when we can welcome the New Year also with some new ideas.

The time gap in release/presentation between the survey and the budget will serve the following purpose:

*There shall be sufficient time to contemplate and deliberate on the themes in the survey before the budget buzz grips.

*The intervening time would afford finance mandarins to consider if some of the insights of the survey could be used in the immediate budget process. The budget may ponder incorporating some of the suggestions/ideas by tweaks in the existing schemes, some course correction, or rolling out fresh initiatives.

*The budget can at least acknowledge some key findings of the survey in the budget speech, and demonstrate an intent to take those forward later. 

*The budget presentation can also use/mention some words and phrases, generally coined in the survey so creatively, to show appreciation. 

*The president's speech/parliamentary debates can also have suitable references to the survey.

All this would not only help enhance the credibility and respectability of the survey but demonstrate, on the part of the government, that it is not just an ornamental, esoteric, or stand-alone document, or that the institution of CEA is
not ceremonial. (For a change for the better, in the recent post-budget briefings, CEA was seen sitting with the august budget team). Needless to mention, the acknowledgments and appreciations would also motivate the bright young team who put in their painstaking efforts in compiling mammoth statistical data, analyzing patterns/trends, and deriving intelligent and actionable inferences.

Optimizing use-value

Though many brilliant ideas and findings have been brought forth by the surveys in the recent past, we observe that either they did not find due recognition/seriousness or the wisdom was not fully optimized, at the government and public policy level. 

The 2017 Economic Survey, for instance, found how dominant our internal migration is, and its role in our economy. Thanks to its study on the movement of people through railways, we had a revelation on the magnitude of inter-state and intra-state migration. The learnings should have prompted us to frame suitable policies on migrant labourers in time and might have been well placed to handle the migrant labor crisis during the pandemic.

The 2018 Economic Survey dealt with a unique issue of meta-preference for boys in our society. It highlighted the new challenge of “unwanted girls,” in addition to “missing girls”. Though the challenge is being addressed in a broad manner by way of gender-specific government schemes but not explicitly acknowledging the work and taking it forward by way of specific/concrete policy measures or public debate to tame the taboo.

While the 2019 Economic Survey placed the theme of “virtuous cycle” of Savings, Investment, and Exports, the Survey of 2020 sensitized us on the need for strengthening the “invisible hand of the market” and supporting it with “hand
of trust.”

 It would serve us well if these themes find adequate articulation and traction in our economic policy. 

In the recent Economic Survey of 2021, there is an eye-opener chapter on the bias and subjectivity of international raters on India’s sovereign rating. This calls for intense discussion and follow-ups in all global fora and leveraging of our diplomatic capital to call out the blatant unfairness.  Clearly, the use-value of the survey is high. Yet, according the survey it's due and leveraging its insights would largely depend on the space we give for discourse and deliberations around them, and the willingness of the top mandarins of the government to respect the ideas graciously,  and make full use of them, wherever possible.

(The writer is a former bank executive who has authored the book X Factor @Workplace. The views are personal. He can be contacted at rkrishnasinha@hotmail.com)