Economic Survey: From 38 pages to nearly 900, and now down to 413

In his preface to this year’s Survey, Sanyal has noted the history of the document that presents the economic report card of the government and suggestions on possible reforms.

The Survey was first published in 1950-51 and was less than 50 pages, initially being a part of the Budget documents. It contained a brief outline of economic developments of the previous year. The Survey of 1957-58 had just 38 pages, Sanyal noted, adding that it was primarily descriptive and contained little in the way of analysis and policy prescriptions. Over the decades the length and the content of the Survey kept on expanding.

When did the Survey begin getting presented in two volumes?

Following the global financial crisis in 2007-08 and 2008-09, an analytical chapter was added about the country’s medium-term challenges and macro-economic prospects, and more thematic chapters were included to capture these aspects. In 2013-14, the statistical appendix was fleshed out and published as a separate volume. In 2014-15, the Economic Survey was presented as two volumes: Volume 1 had a number of chapters addressing topical policy concerns, while Volume 2 carried the traditional Economic Survey along with the statistical appendix.

Why was this year’s Survey trimmed down to a single volume?

Sanyal pointed out that the Economic Survey of 2020-21 “consisted of 335 pages in Volume 1, 368 pages in Volume 2 and a statistical appendix of 174 pages – a total of 877 pages!” “As one can see, the Economic Survey has gone through a great deal of evolution over the decades. The two volume format did allow space for bringing in new ideas and themes but, at almost 900 pages, it was also becoming unwieldy,” he wrote, adding that the thematic chapters of Volume 1 were not being adequately linked to the sectoral chapters in Volume 2. This year’s Economic Survey has therefore been trimmed down to 413 pages.

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Have previous year’s Economic Surveys been presented by anyone other than the CEA?

Yes, earlier, in July 2014, the then Principal Economic Adviser Ila Patnaik had prepared the Survey in absence of a CEA following Raghuram Rajan’s move to the RBI months earlier.