Assessing & delivering bad news on economy no longer taboo in FinMin

Change in mindset has been brought on by Chief Economic Advisor V Anantha Nageswaran who has ensured that discussions on the economy are now much more data-driven and without bluster

Bad news is part of the macro-economic cycle. There will be days when you will have bad news and bad data, be it on GDP, inflation, manufacturing output, consumer and business sentiment, current account and what have you. These are things that can be taken in one's stride. There is no need to react to bad news.

This is the gist of conversations that Chief Economic Advisor V Anantha Nageswaran is said to have had with the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and senior officials in the Finance Ministry. What this encapsulates is the central theme of Nageswaran’s tenure so far.