'EEC should be held at regional levels also'

S Viswanathan, editor and publisher of Industrial Economist, who has been covering the Economic Editors' Conference (EEC) for the last forty years, spoke to KS Narayanan about his experience and the need to bring EEC to the regional level. Excerpts from the interview.


TSI: You have been attending Economic Editors' Conference for a quite a few years now.


S Viswanathan: I have been attending it since 1973. I have not missed it since then. The EEC was started by then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1967.


TSI: What is the importance of EEC?

S Viswanathan: It provides outstation editors and correspondents an opportunity to interact with policy makers. We could also bring to focus specific economic issues relating to their region. I have been focusing on issues related to southern region-Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh as I am familiar with the issues.

TSI: How has EEC undergone a change over the years?

S Viswanathan: Initially the numbers of participants were small. Increasingly it is getting changed to press conferences mode. Though in last couple of years attempts have been made to get original plan. With the advent of television medium and subsequent mushrooming of channels, focus has been on news bytes which I find is not desirable. The concern of television medium is instant byte. In the initial years the conference was held post Union Budget in mid March. The conference has now changed to October-November in recent years. It is also good as we get mid-year review of the economy. We are able to get backgrounders from the conference on the state of economy and to know the progress in various sectors.

TSI: Recently big ticket reforms were announced by the government. How do you see EEC is used as a platform by government to explain reforms?

S Viswanathan: Very effectively as I said it is a sort of mid review of the economy. Manmohan Singh for instance worked in various capacities in Union Finance ministries. We have had a number of occasions to interact with him. Similarly, we have interacted P Chidambaram, Yashwant Sinha and others. Due to coalition government, reform is not receiving enough attention. There are a lot of changes since 1991. Particularly 1990's and early 2000s it was exciting period as the country was opening up in several directions.

TSI: As a veteran journalist how important is to communicate the rational behind harsh economic decisions and reforms?

S Viswanathan: The decision to raise prices whether of fuel or LPG, has be explained. If such a decision was not taken it would have lead to huge fiscal deficit. It needs to be explained seriously more at regional level. Similarly the finances of states are not in good shape. They all face huge debts. Finances of West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Kerala are extremely in bad shape. Most of their funds go in for freebies. Most of their funds go in for servicing debts. In fact the EEC conferences should be held in various regions on a rotational basis.