Guwahati, Jan. 31: The Economic Survey 2024-25 was tabled in the Parliament by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday.

Following this, a press conference was convened by the country’s Chief Economic Adviser (CEA) V Anantha Nageswaran

While addressing the press about the number of hours per week, the CEA highlighted that small businesses must maintain flexible work hours to reap benefits from seasonal surges.

“We will not get into the number of hours’ debate. Small businesses see seasonal surges in orders. It will be good for them to have the flexibility to achieve the weekly working hour limits over a longer period. This is something countries such as Korea and Japan do. It is about managing seasonal surges in businesses,” the CEA said.

With regard to energy transition, the CEA highlighted that the government has been taking several policy initiatives with regard to domestic manufacturing in the direction of energy transition.

“We have been taking initiatives in that direction and hence we have been building several elements of solar supply chain in India. Capacities have increased whether in panels, modules, or cells. However, dependence is also there at a significant level,” the CEA stated.

Speaking about the enhancement of domestic capacity and demand, the CEA said, “While domestic capacity increase is happening for electric vehicle mobility or the battery components or the components that go into solar panels; however, given the demand, dependence will also continue to be there.”

Stressing on the fact that there cannot be a formulaic approach to such matter, the CEA stated, “We must adopt multiple approaches to handling this dependence for the foreseeable future. Hence, public transportation, an important role for nuclear power, and transition fuel are all parts of this strategy.”

Upon being asked at the press conference about the re-election of Donald Trump into the office of the President of the US and subsequent concerns related to tariffs, the CEA stated, “In general, we have taken into consideration the uncertainties posed by the current global environment in terms of raising trade restrictions, raising investment restrictions, and the growth numbers we have spelt out reflect these uncertainties, broadly speaking.”