Sustained improvement in rural sentiments

It is likely that the farmers have tasted blood. Their agitation has succeeded even though it is work in progress

The Union Budget was received with substantial enthusiasm in rural India and with an equal dismay in urban India. This is what we observed on the day of the budget when rural sentiments soared by 8.7 per cent and urban sentiments fell by 4.7 per cent. This divergence continued till the end of the week of the budget announcements. Rural consumer sentiments in the week ended February 4 were 3.5 per cent higher than they were in the preceding week and, by a similar comparison, urban consumer sentiments were 3.4 per cent down.

This divergence in consumer sentiments continued into