Passionate About India

With the 2014 general election staring us in the face, the Finance Minister, Mr. P Chidambaram, presented a budget that resembles a financial bulwark for the masses – but where defence, like others, has been a casualty in the bargain. India had always been an important export destination for weaponry and defence equipment, areas which were monopolized by USSR during the greater part of the Cold War. Even after many entry barriers were removed allowing Western nations to penetrate the Indian defence market, the lion’s share of the defence pie continued to be controlled by Russia – a trend that is still as much in vogue as it was yesteryear! And this budget gave India all the more reason to continue the said trend – a glimpse of which is displayed every year during our Republic Day celebrations where our government showcases the country’s military might as tableaus in front of the entire nation. This year, most of the defence weapons displayed were either imported or were assembled ...

No doubt, year after year the Union Budget ritual is a big let down. But then, this year’s Budget has surpassed all such milestones created by previous Budgets in letting down the masses of this country. It was amazing to watch how casually and callously our honourable Finance Minister (FM) kept on doling out favours after favours, with the least respect for a citizen’s money. It was also amazing to note how our sitting MPs, dead drunk in ‘populism’, kept on vehemently applauding each and every illogical and irrational announcement made by the FM. The final icing came towards the end of his speech, when mainstream media, industrial associations and industrial big wigs shamelessly sang in unison in appreciation for the FM, without getting into the details of the actual impending effects of some of the reckless decisions taken by him, in his Budget speech. Let’s start with our Honourable FM’s biggest kill in this year’s Budget – Waiving of a staggering Rs 60,000 crores worth of loans of ...

My immediate reaction, after hearing the Union Budget speech by our honourable Finance Minister (FM) was that this budget should not get more than 2 on a scale of 10. The reason? It was an extremely rare opportunity that a Finance Minister would have everything going in his favour while going to present his budget and yet it turns out to be a damp squib for every stakeholder of the economy. The fact is that Indian economy has been growing consistently by more than 8% for quite a few quarters now. The forex reserve stands at an all time high of around $188 billion, merchandise exports are on the verge of crossing the magic figure of $125 billion. Yet our FM found it difficult to garner all the courage to go ahead with a path breaking budget. Understandably the reasons for such sub-standard budget has nothing to do with the future of the economy but was intended towards the prospects of the United Progressive Alliance in the forthcoming elections. Amazingly, it miserably failed here too ...