Budget 2018: Marginally populist, doesn't offer roadmap for a new India

There is little on the economic vision side with which anyone would disagree

At a small gathering a few days before the finance minister’s Budget 2018-19 speech, I commented on my expectations for the Budget.  And I was proved wrong on most counts. 

It would have been quite difficult to meet the deficit targets, but the finance minister would keep to them, I predicted. Wrong.

Some new direction on social security would be seen, but little by way of allocations. Partially wrong.

The Budget would attempt at simplification and some deductions would be reduced.  Grossly wrong.

We would see significant movement towards simplification of the tax structure. With the