Pre-Budget Roundtable: The Growth Recipe

How the FM can make it a ‘never before’ Budget. Top experts weigh in

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Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present Budget 2021 in the backdrop of an exceptionally chaotic 2020. In Q1 of FY21, India’s lockdown-struck gross domestic product (GDP) contracted an unprecedented 23.9 per cent, the worst among major economies. When the economy opened up, pentup demand pushed up consumption, but GDP still shrank 7.5 per cent in Q2. And even though the RBI predicts that the economic shrinkage is over and GDP will grow 0.1 per cent and 0.7 per cent in third and fourth quarters, respectively, FY21 is destined to go down in history as India’s fifth recession.