SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 23 September 2024, Shift 2 · General Awareness · Question 5 of 100

Text as printed on a candidate's response sheet for this shift; answer per SSC's tentative key as marked on that sheet. Solution last reviewed 10 September 2026.

Where this paper and its answers come from

SSC does not publish CGL question papers or a public answer key. The questions and options here are reproduced as printed on a candidate's own response sheet for this shift — the Commission's text, unchanged. Each answer is SSC's tentative key as marked on that sheet; SSC allowed challenges to it and never publishes a final key. The solutions are written by UnlockIAS.

Who among the following was appointed as the Chief Economic Advisor (CEA) to the Indian government in 2022?

(a)Raghuram Rajan
(b)Kaushik Basu
(c)TV Somanathan
(d)Venkatramanan Anantha Nageswaran

Answer

Why

Correct — D. V Anantha Nageswaran was appointed Chief Economic Adviser in January 2022, days before that year's Union Budget, succeeding KV Subramanian.

The CEA heads the Economic Division of the Department of Economic Affairs and authors the Economic Survey, tabled just ahead of the Budget. The appointment was timed to that calendar, which is the hook the question uses.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Raghuram Rajan — Raghuram Rajan was CEA from 2012 to 2013 and then Governor of the Reserve Bank until 2016. The right office, the wrong decade.
(b)
Kaushik Basu — Kaushik Basu was CEA from 2009 to 2012 before moving to the World Bank as its Chief Economist. Again the correct chair, more than a decade too early.
(c)
TV Somanathan — TV Somanathan was in the Finance Ministry as Finance Secretary, an administrative post held by an IAS officer. The CEA is a separate, contractual appointment of an economist.

Concept

The Chief Economic Adviser sits in the Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance, and is the government's senior in-house economist.

The post is filled by contract rather than from the civil-service cadre, which is why its holders are academics and market economists rather than serving officers.

The CEA's visible output is the annual Economic Survey, presented to Parliament in the Budget session and read as the government's own account of the year in the economy.

Key facts

V Anantha Nageswaran took office as Chief Economic Adviser in January 2022.
He succeeded KV Subramanian, whose term ended in December 2021.
The CEA works in the Department of Economic Affairs and authors the Economic Survey.
Raghuram Rajan was CEA before becoming Governor of the Reserve Bank in 2013.

Study next

Economic Survey — who writes it and when it is tabledChief Economic Advisers in sequence from Kaushik Basu to the present holderDepartment of Economic Affairs and its role in preparing the Budget

Common traps

Answering with the most famous economist on the list rather than the one holding the office in 2022
Confusing the Chief Economic Adviser with the Finance Secretary or the RBI Governor

Appointment recall is a standing General Awareness slot.

10 Sep 2024, 09:00, General Awareness Q.3 asks who became Controller General of Accounts in March 2023, and 26 Sep 2024, 16:00, General Awareness Q.16 asks what BVR Subrahmanyam was appointed to in February 2023.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.