According to sources, his name has been recommended to the Appointments Committee of Cabinet (ACC) for approval.
The post of CEA has been lying vacant since Raghuram Rajan left the Finance Ministry to join the Reserve Bank as Governor in September last year.
Subramanian, an alumnus of IIM-Ahmedabad, is the Dennis Weatherstone senior fellow at the Washington-based Peterson Institute for International Economics.
A graduate from St Stephens College, Subramanian has been advising the Indian government in different capacities and has been a member of the Finance Minister's Expert Group on the G-20.