Budget 2021 can be a turning point in India's socialist orientation

The government focuses on developing infrastructure, dares to gamble on deficit.

The big surprise in the Union Budget is the government’s willingness to gamble on the budget deficit. Not since Pranab Mukherjee’s 2009 budget, have we seen such an aggressive budget. The difference, however, is that whilst Mr. Mukherjee ramped up the UPA government's revenue expenditure (especially on NREGA), the NDA government has stepped up capex.

The big thrust in this year’s budget is for infrastructure development. The National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP) is targeted to undertake a total of 7,400 projects this year and a Development Financial Institute (DFI) will be set up with Rs 20,000 crore capitalisation and lending capabilities of