Economic Advisory Council

Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (PMEAC) is a non-constitutional, non-permanent and independent body constituted to give economic advice to the Government of India, specifically the Prime Minister. The council serves to highlight key economic issues facing the country to the government of India from a neutral viewpoint. It advises the Prime Minister on a whole host of economic issues like inflation, microfinance, industrial output, etc.

The PMEAC has been constituted several times since the independence of India. Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council (PMEAC) Chairman Chakravarthi Rangarajan resigned on 19 May 2014. He sent his resignation to the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.He resigned following the defeat of the Congress-led UPA in the general elections 2014. Since the term of the PMEAC was parallel to that of the Prime Minister, hence with the resignation of the PM Manmohan Singh on 17 May 2014, the PMEAC also needs to resign. The PMEAC headed by C Rangrajan had Saumitra Chaudhuri, V.S. Vyas, Pulin B. Nayak and Dilip M. Nachane as members.

Before this, PMEAC which was constituted on 29 December 2004, headed by Suresh Tendulkar resigned upon the completion of the then Union government's term on 21 May 2009. Currently PMEAC chairman post is vacant.

Terms of Reference as defined by the PMEAC are as follows:

The primary role of the PMEAC is to give a neutral viewpoint on economic policy matters that are referred to it by the Prime Minister. Additionally it prepares a monthly report of economic developments that need to be highlighted to the PM. For this purpose it closely monitors national and international economic developments and trends and develops appropriate policy responses for the PM. It publishes reports on the annual Economic Outlook and Review of the Economy of India.

The PMEAC is chaired by a Chairperson and consists of eminent economists as members. It is supported in its functions by a team of officials and administrators. There is no fixed definition on the exact number of members and staff of the PMEAC. At one point it was even chaired by the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee himself. For administrative, logistic, planning and budgeting purposes, the Planning Commission of India serves as the Nodal Agency for the PMEAC.

...
Wikipedia