A positive and well balanced budget

COMMENT/ Meher Pudumjee, Chairperson, Thermax Limited

It’s a positive and well balanced Budget that represents all sections of society. The finance minster has addressed the key challenges of maintaining high growth with fiscal prudence, ensuring inclusiveness and targeting weakness in government structure and delivery systems.

Growth and fiscal stability have been carefully balanced along with government borrowing. The Budget plans a reduction in fiscal deficit from 5.5 per cent to 4.1 per cent over the next two years.

We now have a roadmap for infrastructure development. Doubling of outlay for power and a substantial increase in provisions for road transport and railways are good measures.

This definite method to help combat global warming is very encouraging – establishing a National Clean Energy Fund; incentives to promote in-house R&D and partnership with scientific research associations; exemption of excise duty on solar photo-voltaic and solar thermal plants.

There is focus on not just growth but inclusive growth, with improvement in social sector spending for health and education, essential for India. This Budget has taken a balanced approach on rural and urban development with its various schemes.