The Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM) has released a paper titled ‘Share of Religious Minorities: A Cross-Country Analysis’ which studied data on religious composition of populations for 167 countries over 65 years between 1950 and 2015.

Some key points of the paper: 

• According to the paper, the share of the majority Hindu population decreased  by 7.82 percent between 1950 and 2015 (from 84.68 per cent to 78.06 per cent) in India. 

• The share of Muslim population in 1950 was 9.84 percent and increased to 14.09 percent in 2015 — a 43.15 percent increase in their share.

• The share of Christian population rose from 2.24 per cent to 2.36 per cent — an increase of 5.38 percent between 1950 and 2015.

• The share of Sikh population increased from 1.24 per cent in 1950 to 1.85 per cent in 2015 — a 6.58 per cent rise in their share. 

• Even the share of the Buddhist population witnessed a noticeable increase from 0.05 per cent in 1950 to 0.81 per cent. 

• On the other hand, the share of Jains in the population of India decreased from 0.45 per cent in 1950 to 0.36 per cent in 2015. 

• The share of the Parsi population in India witnessed a stark 85 per cent decline, reducing from 0.03 percent share in 1950 to 0.004 per cent in 2015.

Economic Advisory Council to the PM

• Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM) is an independent body constituted to give advice on economic and related issues to the government of India, specifically to the Prime Minister. 

The Terms of Reference of EAC-PM include: 

i) Analysing any issue, economic or otherwise, referred to it by the Prime Minister and advising him thereon.

ii) Addressing issues of macroeconomic importance and presenting views thereon to the Prime Minister.

• These could be either suo-motu or on reference from the Prime Minister or anyone else. They also include attending to any other task as may be desired by the Prime Minister from time to time.

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