FM's Fine Balancing Act

IN HER MAIDEN BUDGET SPEECH that lasted for nearly two hours and 17 minutes, India’s first woman Finance Minister Nirmala Sitaraman has driven home a clear message — from now onwards she would boldly balance the Narendra Modi-led NDA government’s political objectives and macroeconomic objectives.

- Kartikeya Sharma

The key points that emerged from the FM’s speech are as follows.One, that the budget is intensely political. Emulating PM Modi’s drive in the first term to provide toilets on a large scale to avoid open defecation and promote cleanliness which were particularly important for girls and women, the FM has embarked on a Har Ghar Jal scheme that aims to provide safe and adequate drinking water to all rural households by 2024 under the Jal Jeewan Mission. Likewise, the FM’s promise to provide every single rural family with electricity and clean cooking facility by 2022, the 75th year of Independence, is an indication that the Modi government is in no mood for complacency even after the landslide victory in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. Similarly, the announcement of pension benefits to about 3 crore retail traders and shopkeepers whose annual turnover is less than Rs 1.5 crore under the PM Karmayogi Maandhan Scheme is an attempt by the FM to endear the Modi-led BJP government to its traditional and core political constituency.

Two, the budget also aims at stepping up long-term economic growth by its emphasis on infrastructural investment. The FM’s big bang announcement of investing Rs 100 lakh crore in infrastructure over the next five years reveals her intention to boost the growth of the Indian economy in the long run. Likewise, the decision to upgrade 1.25 lakh km of rural roads to the Pradhan Mantri Gramin Sadak Yojna (PMGSY) is indicative of accelerating growth of rural India in the future.