Budget: Vision Set; Implementation Is The Real Test

In his 16th budget—his third as chief minister in the current tenure—Siddaramaiah appears to have done a fine balancing act by continuing his government's thrust on welfare programmes and attempting to cover some lost ground on the infrastructure development front.

- Ramu Patil

Although the budget lacked a wow factor or a big scheme or programme that stood out, it seems that Siddaramaiah and his team endeavoured to cover most aspects of socio-economic development, including a range of schemes for minority welfare. These received flak from the opposition, while the chief minister stood his ground.

The government, which had faced ire over its guarantee-centric approach, acknowledged the role of infrastructure development in driving the state's economy and job creation while rolling out some schemes to help different sections of society, including farmers.

The proposed rain-fed agriculture policy that the CM mentioned in the budget is likely to indicate the direction in which the government will move to improve agricultural production as 64% or around 64 lakh hectares of the cultivated area in the state is non-irrigated. Even if production rises by one quintal per hectare, it adds significantly to the total production and helps small farmers in a big way.

As per the Karnataka Economic Survey 2024-25, which cited the Agriculture Census 2015-16, the average size of farm holding is 1.36 hectares and 86.81 lakh farm holdings operate on 118.05 lakh hectares. Small and marginal holdings account for 80% of the total holdings and operate 44% of the total operated area.