The Indian economy is facing a slowdown, and the Prime Minister and his Economic Advisory Council are of the view that the government needs to form a ‘GST Council-like’ body to strategise expenditure and have maximum impact. Various suggestions have been made to curb the decline in economic activity that has lasted more than a few months. Pointing out the success of the GST Council body for decisions about indirect taxes, the Economic Advisory Council Chairman Bibek Debroy said that in order to increase the efficiency of the overall public expenditure, there needs to be a decision-making body that would keep a check on the expenditure. The chairman also mentioned that there are fiscal consolidation issues that limit gains on public expenditure, but a focused and strategic expenditure by central and state governments could yield efficiency gains. On this edition of The Big Picture we analyse the need and likely impact of a Public Spending Council.