Budget 2025: Modi Holds Meeting With Niti Aayog Experts

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and economists discussed job creation, improving farm productivity, and mobilising public funds for infrastructure development and other issues on Tuesday in preparation for the 2025-26 Budget.

Prominent economists and sectoral experts at NITI Aayog met the prime minister to get their perspectives and recommendations for the budget.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will be presenting the budget for 2025-26 in the Lok Sabha on Feb. 1.

In an official statement, the prime minister said Viksit Bharat can be achieved through a fundamental change in mindset, with the focus of making India developed by 2047.

The participants shared their perspectives on several issues, including ways in dealing with problems posed by global economic uncertainties and geopolitical tensions, strategies to improve employment rates especially with young people, and creating sustainable job opportunities across sectors.

Suggestions were also made on configuring education and training programmes to catch up with the changing needs of the job market, increasing agricultural productivity and creating sustainable rural employment opportunities, attracting private investment and mobilising public funds for infrastructure projects to boost economic growth.

Suggestions were also made for promoting financial inclusion and boosting exports and attracting foreign investment, as per the statement.

Renowned economists and analysts present at the interaction included Surjit S Bhalla, Ashok Gulati, Sudipto Mundle, Dharmakirti Joshi, Janmejaya Sinha, Madan Sabnavis, Amita Batra, Ridham Desai, Chetan Ghate, Bharat Ramaswami, Soumya Kanti Ghosh, Siddhartha Sanyal, Laveesh Bhandari, Rajani Sinha, Keshab Das, Pritam Banerjee, Rahul Bajoria, Nikhil Gupta, and Shashwat Alok, the statement added.

(With inputs From PTI)