With several agencies cutting the GDP growth forecast to 7 per cent and lower, the Union Finance Ministry is in a dilemma whether an aggressive tightening of the monetary policy is the appropriate strategy for India, which faces challenges that may require a different response than the western countries.

Best placed to reflect on the immediate and medium-term challenges facing the economy, the policy options before leaders, and the trade-offs therein, Chief Economic Advisor V Anantha Nageswaran, will be the guest at Express Adda Friday evening. Anantha Nagswaran, who has had first-hand experience of seeing economic policy actions from close quarters as the economy charted its course through the Covid-19 pandemic, will be in conversation with Anant Goenka, Executive Director, Indian Express Group, and P Vaidyanathan Iyer, Executive Editor, The Indian Express.

While the domestic economy has shown two bright spots: private final consumption expenditure — a measure of consumption of goods and services by individuals — and gross fixed capital formation — a proxy for investment activity — in the GDP print for the first quarter of this financial year, the levels are still far from desired. The government has called the industry to step up its investments.

Anantha Nageswaran’s presence couldn’t have been more appropriately timed than now as the government makes efforts to push growth, increase employment and equitable wealth distribution with a focus on red-lettered priorities beyond inflation.

He has been an author, teacher and consultant and has taught at several business schools and institutes of management in India and in Singapore. He was the Dean of the IFMR Graduate School of Business and a Visiting Professor of Economics at Krea University. He has also been a part-time member of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister from 2019 to 2021.

Anantha Nageswaran holds a Post-Graduate Diploma in Management from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, and a doctoral degree from the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. He is also the co-founder of the Takshashila Institution, a centre for research and education in public policy.

The Express Adda is a series of informal interactions organised by The Indian Express Group and features those at the centre of change. Among the recent guests were Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya, Union Minister of Housing and Urban Affairs and Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep Singh Puri.