Tendulkar takes charge of PM's EAC

NEW DELHI: Renowned economist Suresh Tendulkar took over on Wednesday as chairman of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's Economic Advisory Council (EAC).

He along with other members of the EAC - GK Chadha, Saumitra Chaudhuri, Satish C Jha, and M Govinda Rao - was present on the dais on Wednesday when his predecessor C Rangarajan presented the 'Economic Outlook for 2008-09'.

EAC has predicted a 7.7 percent growth in gross domestic product (GDP) in the current fiscal, against the 9 percent growth achieved in 2007-08.
      
"A 7.7 percent growth rate is a respectable figure," Tendulkar said on Wednesday.   

Tendulkar, a professor in Delhi University's Delhi School of Economics (DSE) here, has a master's degree from the DSE and a Ph.D from Harvard as a Rockefeller Foundation scholar.

Rangarajan, a former governor of the Reserve Bank of India who later became the governor of Andhra Pradesh, has been nominated to the Rajaya Sabha, the upper House of the Indian parliament.

An expert on issues like poverty and planning, Tendulkar was a member of the EAC, and was closely associated with the Indian Statistical Institute in the national capital.

"I am quite bullish about the Indian economy," Tendulkar said soon after being named the new council chairperson Aug 8.