Economic Survey 2021: Covid fight on cover, structural change inside

Economic Surveys should definitely not be judged by their covers – it’s what inside that tells us how the CEA has analysed the world’s fifth largest economy. But down the years, Economic Survey covers have always been judged as examples of rare government efforts to adorn an official document with some aesthetics.
This year, the cover has masked frontline health workers holding hands, forming a ring, with a V superimposed on India’s map. No prizes for guessing that signifies a V-shaped recovery. Why fighting the pandemic was the cover theme is clear, too. But covers in recent non-covid years have been more interesting.

Breaking with years of tradition, Part 1 is devoted to key conceptual and policy issues – how India fought covid, the debt/GDP debate, the “unfairness” of Western credit rating agencies, inequality, loan forbearance, innovation, Ayushman Bharat and constructing a Bare Necessities Index. Each section on these ideas was prefaced by a quote, from the Upanishads to Tagore to Jungle Book.

Part 2 is more conventional with chapters devoted to macro economy and sectoral analysis.

There’s freshness in Part 1 and a somewhat familiar feeling about Part 2.