economic survey 2021-22

Economic Survey 2021-22 Highlights

Economic Survey 2021-22

Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman (The Union Minister for Finance & Corporate Affairs) presented the Economic Survey 2021-22 in Parliament on February 01, 2022. Here in this post, we have presented some major highlights of the Economic Survey 2021-22 that are important from the Exam Point of view. But before that, we need to understand some basic concepts about the Economic Survey.

What is Economic Survey?

Economic Survey of India is a document prepared by the Ministry of Finance on annual basis and it contains a detailed account of the various sectors of the economy and overall economic scenario of the country of the year that is about to end i.e in this case 2021-22.

Who prepares the Economic Survey?

The economic survey is prepared under the guidance of the Chief Economic Adviser of the Finance Ministry. The present Chief Economic Adviser is Dr. V Anantha Nageswaran.

Economic Division of the Department of Economic Affairs of the Finance Ministry prepares it under the guidance of the Chief Economic Adviser. At the final stage, it is approved by Union Finance Minister.

This time the Economic survey has been prepared under the guidance of Principal Economic Adviser- Sanjeev Sanyal, as the position of Chief Economic Advisor was lying vacant since December 2021 and was filled in the last week of January 2022.

When is Economic Survey released?

It is presented a day before the presentation of the Union Budget in the Parliament. For extra knowledge, you can learn that the first Economic Survey of India was presented in the year 1950-51. Up to 1964, it was presented along with the Union Budget. From 1964 Onwards, it has been delinked from the Budget.


New in Economic Survey 2021-22

From this year the Economic Survey has shifted from the two-volume format to a single volume plus a separate volume for statistical tables. It has 11 Chapters.

Theme of Economic Survey 2021-22

The central theme of this year’s Economic Survey is the “Agile approach”

Major highlights of Economic Survey 2021-22

  • GDP growth figures
    • India’s GDP growth in 2019-20= 4%
    • India’s GDP growth in 2020-21 (Provisional Estimate)= -7.3% (contraction)
    • India’s GDP growth in 2021-22 (1st advance estimate)= 9.2%
    • India’s GDP growth for 2022-23 (Projected)= 8.0 to 8.5%
  • Barbell Strategy: The Government of India opted for a “Barbell Strategy” that combined a bouquet of safety-nets to cushion the impact on vulnerable sections of society/business, with a flexible policy response based on a Bayesian updating of information.
    • The barbell strategy is an investment concept that suggests that the best way to strike a balance between reward and risk is to invest in the two extremes of high-risk and no-risk assets while avoiding middle-of-the-road choices.
  • Sector hardest hit by Pandemic: Services sector has been the hardest hit by the pandemic. This sector is estimated to grow by 8.2 percent this financial year 
  • Sector least hit by Pandemic: Agricultural sector is least hit by pandemics. Agriculture and allied sectors are expected to grow by 3.9 percent in 2021-22
  • Growth in Capex: During April-November 2021, Capex has grown by 13.5 percent (YoY) with focus on infrastructure-intensive sectors.
  • India’s rank in Forex reserve: As of end-November 2021, India was the fourth-largest forex reserves holder in the world after China, Japan and Switzerland.
  • GNPA of Banks: The Gross Non-Performing Advances ratio of Scheduled Commercial Banks (SCBs) declined from 11.2 per cent at the end of 2017-18 to 6.9 per cent at the end of September, 2021.
  • IPO’s issued: Rs. 89,066 crore was raised via 75 Initial Public Offering (IPO) issues in April-November 2021.
  • SDG Index India: India’s overall score on the NITI Aayog SDG India Index and Dashboard improved to 66 in 2020-21 from 60 in 2019-20 and 57 in 2018-19.
  • Forest Area in India: India has the tenth largest forest area in the world.
    • In 2020, India ranked third globally in increasing its forest area during 2010 to 2020.
    • In 2020, the forests covered 24% of India’s total geographical, accounting for 2% of the world’s total forest area.
  • Phasing out single use plastic by 2022.: In August 2021, the Plastic Waste Management Amendment Rules, 2021, was notified which is aimed at phasing out single use plastic by 2022.
  • Lifestyle for Environment: The Prime Minister of India at the 26th Conference of Parties (COP 26) in Glasgow in November 2021, announced the need to start the one-word movement ‘LIFE’ (Lifestyle for Environment).
  • Capital expenditure for the Indian railways: has increased to Rs. 155,181 crores in 2020-21 from an average annual of Rs. 45,980 crores during 2009-14 and it has been budgeted to further increase to Rs. 215,058 crores in 2021-22 – a five times increase in comparison to the 2014 level.
  • Startup ecosystem: India has become 3rd largest start-up ecosystem in the world after US and China. Number of new recognized start-ups increased to over 14000 in 2021-22 from 733 in 2016-17. 44 Indian start-ups have achieved unicorn status in 2021 taking overall tally of unicorns to 83, most of which are in services sector.
  • Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM): Under Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM), 83 districts have become ‘Har Ghar Jal’ districts.
  • Payments by DICGC: Up to 31st March 2021, a cumulative amount of Rs. 5,763 crores has been paid towards claims since the inception of deposit insurance. After the Deposit Insurance And Credit Guarantee Corporation (Amendment) Act, 2021 was enacted, over Rs. 1500 crore has been paid to over 1.2 lakh depositors against their claims, as of early January 2022.

  • As per the National Family Health Survey-5:
    • Total Fertility Rate (TFR) came down to 2 in 2019-21 from 2.2 in 2015-16
    • Infant Mortality Rate (IMR), under-five mortality rate and institutional births have improved in 2019-21 over year 2015-16

Union Budget 2022-23 Important Highlights with PDF

Download Economic Survey 2021-22

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