Short on specifics and long on rhetoric, the interim budget ends up an empty exercise that ignores both imperatives and expectations.
Nirmala Sitharaman holds the record for the longest budget speech—her 2.4-hour ultramarathon in 2020. In contrast, Thursday’s speech came in at just 58 minutes, her shortest to date and one of the briefest ever. Even this was mostly devoted to the achievements of the two Modi governments and the shortcomings of earlier dispensations.
Expectations were not running high in any case, since tradition dictates a curtailed budget in an election year. Hence, we have an “interim budget” instead of a regular one, and a benign “economic review” preceding it instead of the usual and detailed “economic survey”. Semantics aside, it …
Ujval leads our Business vertical at The Morning Context. In a corporate career spanning 14 years, he has worked across startups, consulting firms, multinational corporations and large Indian companies, including India Infoline, ICICI, KPMG, Tata Steel and Jubilant Pharma. Ujval has been a freelance writer and trainer for eight years, with bylines in Forbes India and The Economic Times.
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