Chairman of the Economic Advisory Council (EAC) to the Prime Minister Suresh D Tendulkar, as well as other member of the apex panel submitted their resignation today.
The council will now be reconstituted by Manmohan Singh when he takes over as Prime Minister of the country on May 22.
Resignations of the PM’s council came a day after members of the Planning Commission put in their papers.
“The chairman and the members of the council met today and submitted their resignations, which will be passed on the Prime Minister’s Office,” said government officials in the know.
Other members of the council include M Govinda Rao,GK Chadha, Satish C Jha, and Saumitra Chaudhury, who have Minister of State status. Chairman of the council has the same stature as a cabinet minister.
The council was set up through an executive order on 29 December, 2004, with C Rangarajan as the chairman. Subsequently, Tendulkar was appointed as the chairman of the council in mid 2008, after Rangarajan was elected as a Rajya Sabha member.
The council was set up during the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) regime, with Atal Bihari Vajpayee as the chairman.
But the council got its secretariat after the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government took over in 2004.
Duvvuri Subbarao, the present governor of the Reserve Bank of India, was the first secretary of the council, where he served from 2005 to 2007, before taking over as the finance secretary.
The council advises the Prime Minister on important economic issues and policy related matters. Moreover, it also prepares a monthly report on domestic and international economic developments as well as conducts periodic review of the economy.
In its latest review report released in February, 2009, the council had cut the growth forecast of the country for 2008-09 from 7.7 per cent.
