Forget me not

The Union Budget 2025 is a golden opportunity to kickstart flagging growth and lacklustre demand

- SHUTAPA PAUL

432 million — that’s the number of people who will patiently await the Budget, often only to be disappointed. Of course, the rest of the nation, rural masses, and corporate India are also watching the Budget; but somehow for middle class India, it feels more personal. How much money will be flicked from its pockets, how much will be put back? This year, India’s stressed and strained middle class has but one wish from the Union Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, ‘forget me not’. The last few years have been brutal on this 31 per cent of Indian population — urban jobs have been few, food prices have steadily increased, and savings have dropped. The Indian middle class has had reason to feel neglected; considered as one of the primary drivers of the economy with numbers touching 38 per cent by 2031 and 60 per cent by 2047, it’s in the economy’s interest, to keep it propitiated.