Best of BS Opinion: Defence Budget, employment spending, and more

Why stock markets fell on the Budget and is there reason in reducing spending on creating jobs, explain our Opinion pieces today.

Stock market investors are not impressed by the Union Budget, presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday. This was reflected in trade on Monday as well. It is being argued that the Budget did not do enough to support economic growth. However, to be fair, the finance minister didn’t have fiscal room to push expenditure in a big way. But there are several other reasons why analysts are not impressed. 
 
For instance, the Budget has once again raised tariffs. In this context, our second editorial notes: The economic history of India till the 1990s reveals the dangers of allowing the belief to take hold that tariffs lead to job creation and a productive base. It did not work then, and it will not now. Read here

 
Greater transparency and realism in government finances will increase market confidence and help bring down the borrowing cost over time, argues our lead editorial here
 

Nothing speaks better than money on the table. The government just reduced its intention to spend on jobs on 2020-21, writes Mahesh Vyas. Read here
 
It should be self-evident that lacking the economic resources to be a dominant military power, we cannot keep waving the flag of unbridled nationalism, writes Ajai Shukla here
 

Quote
 
“The attempt is to show that we have had complete thinking-through and are taking the most fiscally prudent route.”

 
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman