Nirmala Sitharaman's maiden Budget is good, but there's room for more

'We produce the globally best in our institutions but lose too many of them to other countries', said the author

The first Budget of a government with a five-year mandate was expected to do two things: (a) maintain continuity of action undertaken in the earlier government (as the ruling coalition has remained unaltered); and (b) lay down a plan to consolidate gains made in the previous five years and offer a road map for a bigger push to the economy over the next five years. The finance minister started her Budget speech in that vein by declaring her government’s desire to push India towards a $5 trillion economy in the “next few years”.

India is more than an emerging economy; it