Electoral politics could extract too high a price

Will the budget for 2025-26 see India's government stick to its stated fiscal consolidation goal? Or will the demands of Bihar, Andhra Pradesh and political largesse get in the way?

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With less than a fortnight to go before India's budget for 2025-26, all eyes are on finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

Apart from all the usual reasons, this budget has special relevance, as it is the first full-year fiscal plan after last summer's Lok Sabha elections. It comes after the interim budget on 1 February 2024 and the one presented in July for the remaining eight months of 2024-25. The forthcoming budget, thus, is both an opportunity and a challenge for the Narendra Modi government. While it offers the administration a chance to showcase its achievements of the past eleven years and lay down priorities for the next four, the demands made of it have grown.