India lacks specialists who can prepare budget: RBI Governor

Panaji, Feb 20 (IANS) There are far too few people in the government who can even prepare a budget, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Raghuram Rajan said Friday adding that well-trained economists were at a premium throughout the government sector.

"(There are) too few people who can prepare a budget, too few people who can do public debt management. We need far more capacity in government," Rajan said while speaking at an ongoing lecture series here.

The RBI governor's comment comes ahead of the budget session of Parliament, where union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley is expected to present the first full budget of the National Democratic Alliance government (NDA).

As the economy develops, the country would need specialists with domain knowledge and experience in many areas of governance and regulation and there are few going around, Rajan said.

"For instance, well trained economists are at a premium throughout the government. There are far too few Indian Economic Service officers to go around and I know because I was for a little while, the head of the service and got constant requests," Rajan said.