Filmmaker Sudhir Mishra's take on the best and worst things in Budget 2019

What is the best thing about the Budget?

Those that are more fortunate should contribute more. We have duties so that the less fortunate may have more rights. So higher surcharge for taxable income upwards of Rs 2 crore is a good idea.  

And the worst?

As usual, what interests me is absent, like culture, education, and research. For 30 years now budgets have not addressed things that are not profitable in the immediate sense. But the way I understand it, education and culture combined are connected to ‘growth’, to the growth of the mind of a nation.

Will it help the economy and create jobs?

Can’t say the Budget addresses that. Employment needs to be rethought because mechanisation is going to lead to fewer jobs. How do you make employment and how do you make people beneficially employed in the face of this inevitability? A government with this mandate should do something bolder.

If you could make one change in the Budget, it would be…

I don’t think books should be more expensive. Even WiFi should be free. My view is knowledge belongs to mankind.