Crafting 21st Century India Collaboratively, with Confidence

This is a budget that wants to build an inclusive India, keeping in mind its demographics and possibilities, using digital. It allows for structural pillars of citizenry welfare to be incorporated into India’s growth vision, with pillars of Atmanirbharta, Building India, Connections, Digital, Demographic leverage, Equality, Inclusiveness and States-Federal cooperation

- Srinath Sridharan

THE UNION BUDGET is a statement of accounts of the Government of India (GoI). Yet a careful reading of it, leaving the politics aside, showcases the roadmap for not just the year ahead, but the next couple of decades. Yes, the Union Budget 2022 has gone beyond the fiscal, using the exercise to spell out the principles of policy engagement and fiscal thinking for building India in the decades ahead.

The Economic Survey 2021-2022 did show prudence in its conservative growth rate indication of 8-8.5 per cent. It also spelt out the positive fiscal efforts so far and the fruits it has borne, as well as the challenges ahead. The budget boldly envisages using trust-based governance to build an Atmanirbhar Bharat. It reposes faith in taxpayers, entrepreneurs, investors and citizens. Hopefully, this construct will cascade down through the policy delivery mechanism.

Refreshingly, this is the first budget in independent India that speaks of ‘ease of living’. If it lives up to the intent, it can address concerns emanating from flight of human capital over the past few years. This budget wants to leverage the demographic dividend to nurture and build an encouraging ecosystem for Young India, for it to leap ahead, to structurally develop an entrepreneurship framework and create new additional jobs. In short, this is a budget that bets big on the public and public infrastructure.

Qualitative Estimates, Pre-budget

In the previous edition of this magazine, I had opined that the practical expectation from the Union Budget for 2022-23 would be that of announcements of governmental investments into infrastructure, and policies that could enhance entrepreneurship and fast-track job-creation. I had said that the budget would indicate governmental spends in infrastructure across the following sectors: