Nothing big-bang, Nirmala stays with fiscal consolidation

NOTHING much was expected from the Interim Budget of 2024 and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman lived up to that expectation. The FM stayed away from announcing any big-bang populist measures but turned her short Budget speech into a self-congratulatory session.

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Most part of the speech was dedicated to listing out the ‘achievements’ of the Narendra Modi-led government in the past 10 years, drawing a then-and-now comparison between pre- and post-2014 era. Stressing that the Modi government will come back to power after the 2024 general elections, she said: “In the full budget in July, our Government will present a detailed roadmap for our pursuit of Viksit Bharat.”

Sitharaman did not elaborate on the contours of that roadmap, but highlighted PM Modi’s key focus areas — the poor, women, youth, and farmers.

But there too, no major announcements were made except for the ₹1 lakh crore corpus with 50-year interest-free loan for financing innovations. This is supposed to help the tech-savvy youth in pursuing their career in sunrise sectors.