FIRING UP TWO CYLINDERS
On February 1, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman made a Budget speech that will be remembered for its length and sobriety. It lasted for almost three hours – the longest in the history of Indian Parliament – and lacked the number games that are often associated with Budget announcements. No claims of astronomical increases in budgetary allocations, no unrealistic revenue projections. What the minister did was to present a string of measures that are expected to improve the financial health of agrarian and rural India, leave some money in hands of taxpaying citizens and improve investment opportunities for private enterprises, both foreign and domestic.
The immediate response of stock markets – the BSE Sensex ended the day down by 988 points, the steepest Budget day fall in a decade - suggests the announcements didn’t match expectations, at least that of stock investors. It, though, partially recovered on January 3 by rising 136 points.
But nobody expected miracles. The country has been going through an economic slowdown. Of the four growth engines, only one, government expenditure, has been pushing growth for six quarters now. Private investment has hit a seven-year low while exports
