During the customary address to the Tamil Nadu assembly, Governor Banwari Lal Purohit stated that the state will constitute an “Economic Advisory Council to the Chief Minister” with leading economic experts from all over the world and the government has issued the necessary order for the council formation right after the governor address and has also announced the terms of reference to the council.

The council comprises former Reserve Bank governor Raghuram Rajan, Nobel Laureate Prof. Esther Duflo of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, former Chief Economic Advisor to the Government of India Arvind Subramanian, Prof. Jean Dreze, Development Economist and Dr S.Narayan, former Union Finance Secretary.

Tamil Nadu Additional Chief Secretary will be the convener of the council. This is the first time when such a council to be formed in Tamil Nadu.

In the terms of reference, the government has stated that the council will “analyse and provide advice on any issues of economic and social policy referred to the council or its members by the Chief Minister of the Minister of Finance and Human resource management.”

The address also read that the “The fiscal health of the state is a cause for concern, and this government will focus on improving the fiscal position and bringing down the overall debt burden. As a first step, a report (white paper) detailing the true state of Tamil Nadu‟s finances will be released in the month of July.”

This comes at the time when the Finance Minister P.T.R Palanivel Thiaga Raja alleged that even when the state roughly contributes to 10% of Indian GDP and tax contribution, the state receives comparatively less than the other low performing states.