‘Blue sky thinking and Matsyanyaya’: Things to take note of in Economic Survey

The Economic Survey released on Thursday came with a few helpings of sentences and phrases that perk up a report that could otherwise be a heavy read.

The survey, tabled in Parliament by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, opens with acknowledgements by Chief Economic Advisor (CEA) Krishnamurthy V. Subramanian who apart from thanking officials also expresses gratitude to their families.

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“The Economic Survey owes deep gratitude to the families of all those involved in its preparation for being ever so patient, understanding and encouraging and for extending their unflinching emotional and physical support and encouragement throughout the preparation. The families, indeed, are the unconditional pillars of support for the dedicated contributors to the Economic Survey,” he says.

In the preface, Subramaniam thanks past CEAs by quoting Sir Isaac Newton’s “If I have seen further than others, it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants.” This Survey makes a humble effort to carry forward this glorious tradition, he writes.

On the blue-coloured cover of the survey, he says it denotes the unfettered approach, the ‘blue sky thinking’.” The Survey adopts an unfettered approach in thinking about the appropriate economic model for India. This endeavour is reflected in the sky blue cover of the Survey,” he says.

The Survey has a blue cover with a set of wheels indicating national priorities like growth, exports and job creation. “The cover design captures the idea of complementary inter-linkages between these macroeconomic variables using the pictorial description of several inter-linked gears,” Subramanian says in the preface.

Many sections open with a Sanskrit shlokas with English translation. Some have quotes of renowned names such as kautaliya, Kamandak’s Nitisara and Charaka Samhita.

Several sections of the report also have off beat headings. The section on Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) is titled Nourishing Dwarfs to become Giants: Reorienting policies for MSME Growth. The Survey strongly supports helping small and medium enterprises to grow and become large enterprises to be more useful. “The perception of small firms being significant job creators pervades because job destruction by small firms is ignored in this calculus: small firms destroy jobs as much as they create. In contrast, large firms create permanent jobs in larger numbers. Also, young firms create more jobs at an increasing rate than older firms,” the section says

The in interesting section on behavioural economics, titled Policy for Homo Sapiens, Not Homo Economicus: Leveraging the Behavioural Economics of “Nudge”, lists need for behavioural change on issues such as gender equality, savings, tax compliance and credit quality.

“Drawing on the psychology of human behaviour, behavioural economics provides insights to ‘nudge’ people towards desirable behavior,” the Survey says.

The section on ways to ramp up capacity in the lower judiciary is titled ‘Ending Matsyanyaya’ (the law of the fish/jungle). “Backlog of cases weighs down the Indian judiciary, economic tribunals and the tax department, thereby constraining economic growth,” report says quoting last year’s survey.