Eco Survey, Rail Budget to make week exciting

This week promises to be an exciting one, with the Railway Budget to come out on Thursday, followed by the Economic Survey on Friday. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will announce the general Budget on February 29, Monday.

The Survey will be read eagerly for not only what it tells about the state of the economy in the year gone by but also as a piece of literature. These are traditionally lead-written by the government's chief economic advisor and under Kaushik Basu, were a delight to read.

Former railway minister Lalu Prasad has already let out his views on what he expects from the rail Budget. However, minister Suresh Prabhu is unlikely to pay much attention to this.

Gujarat to announce Budget on Tuesday

Several state governments are going to present their Budgets as well, including Gujarat, one of India's fastest-growing and industrialised ones. The Budget session of the state Assembly will begin on Monday and the Budget presented on Tuesday. During the session, there will be general discussion on state Budget, department-wise allocations and voting, government and private member bills and non-government resolutions.

Clarity on PDP-BJP alliance likely

This week will see, hopefully, some clarity on government formation in two states where Assemblies are in suspended animation, Arunachal Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir (J&K). There are signs that Mehbooba Mufti might have recovered from her grief at losing her father last month and, now that religious ceremonies are almost over, and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and she could announce they are ready to re-form a government in J&K.

In Arunachal, a rebel Congress faction is ready to form a government with the help of the BJP. The matter is in court but the argument of the governor: that a majority can only be tested on the floor of the House appears to have got reluctant endorsement from the Supreme Court.