FULL Economic Survey 2019-20: Before Union Budget 2020, here's the document you must read

The Finance Minister on Friday tabled the Economic Survey in Parliament, shortly after the start of its Budget session. The Economic Survey, prepared under the leadership of the Chief Economic Advisor K Subramanian, throws up a number of surprises as the Modi government looks to undertake the onerous task of turning around the current trend of GDP growth and ushering India towards the desired $5 trillion economy goal.

One major statement made by the Economic Survey relates to the projection for India's GDP growth, which is pegged at 6-6.5% rather than the 4.8% projection by the IMF for 2020-21.

Here is the full economic survey, volumes one and two:

Economic Survey Volume I by ankit on Scribd

Economic Survey Volume II Complete PDF by ankit on Scribd

Focus on Wealth Creation

That the Survey is geared towards addressing a number of the issues being faced by the economy currently is ascertained from the first two chapters, which are all about wealth creation. Interestingly, there is also a quasi-political aspect to the document, with the third chapter attempting to draw a distinction between wealth creation and crony capitalism. It also hints at messaging of a 'hands-off' approach towards spurring economic growth, referring to the government as an invisible hand. 

The release of the survey comes before the presentation of the union budget by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on February 1. The budget, which is the third within the span of just one year, is billed as a critical one given that India's current GDP growth rate has slowed to an 11-year low. The expectation is for the budget to spur industry investment, and also catalyse a growth in consumer demand. 

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The Budget politics

As with all budgets there is also a political component to it, with the Opposition mounting pressure on the government, still citing Demonetisation and GST, and most relevantly, in terms of numbers, contrasting the decrease in GDP growth rate with the increase in inflation.

Ahead of the Budget, the Prime Minister and Finance Minister have held numerous meetings with think tanks like the Niti Aayog, the Economic Advisory Council, as well as with some of the top leaders of Indian industry, apart from industry specific meetings. The Budget speech will begin at 11 am on Saturday. 

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