PICKING UP IDEAS FROM THE OTHER SIDE OF AISLE

THE day after the Congress released its election manifesto this April, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the document had the "stamp of the Muslim League'.

- PRAVEEN CHAKRAVARTY

Turns out that this document is a source of inspiration for Modi's first budget in his third term. In an election where the BJP lost its majority, the big message from voters was: "Thank you for the temple, but where is my job?"

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman seems to have taken a serious note of it. She mentioned the word 'employment' 24 times in her budget speech, comparable to just thrice last year, and announced specific new ideas for job creation—an employment-linked incentive (ELI) scheme and an internship scheme. Only, both these were ideas mentioned in the Congress's election manifesto that the Modi government has adopted. Such bipartisan consensus on a critical national issue like employment is laudable and much needed.

The budget was first and foremost an acknowledgement of need to reverse course in economic policy direction. The need for more direct incentives for job creation than indirect ones such as corporate tax cuts, production-linked incentives or chasing headline GDP growth was the first acknowledgement. The second was abandonment of foolhardy economic nationalism and embracing free trade by reducing customs duties and expanding trade with China.

While the ideas of ELI and apprenticeship schemes were taken from the Congress manifesto, they don't seem to have been adequately understood. The FM announced the outlay of a whopping ₹2 lakh crore for employment and skilling schemes over the next five years to apparently skill and provide jobs to