How to judge the Budget

This Budget must be judged by whether it reduces government expenditure and thus helps lift spirits by taxing less

Much has been said about India’s twin balance-sheet problem and the Great Indian Slowdown. It’s like a person getting a stroke and a heart attack at the same time.

Usually the cause is the same: Obesity caused by a fat-filled diet. This is exactly the economy’s problem today, which has two major problems at this juncture. Together they have caused the enormous slowdown in growth.

The first, from which every single problem follows — like a bad diet — is that the government is spending too much on politically beneficial programmes, thus leaving less for others, and taking too much from citizens