In an election year the Finance Minister presented a pragmatic Budget with no giveaways
India's Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman (C) holds the briefcase containing the annual budget documents as she leaves the Finance ministry with her staff to present the budget in the parliament in New Delhi on February 1, 2024.
Image: Sajjad Hussain / AFP
Those looking for tax sops, cash giveaways and loan waivers in the interim Budget were in for a disappointment. There were none of those.
In plentiful supply were fiscal rectitude, slightly lower spending and a continued build out of the country’s infrastructure. These markers of the Budget pointed to a government that was as confident of its management of the economy as it is of coming back for another full term.