A Budget beyond popcorn: Focus on capex and consumer-driven growth

The government needs to spend more on capex and allow consumers to have money in their pockets if it wants growth. Let's focus on the real issues

In the Indian economy’s calendar, the two most important events are the Union Budget and the monetary policy of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). Over the next two weeks, we will have a ringside view of both. In some sense, they are two acts of the same play, typically staged in February. Along with many other things, the play explores the fiscal-monetary dynamics.

 

The Union Budget for financial year 2025-26 (FY26) is slated for February 1, and the three-day meeting of the RBI’s rate-setting body, the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC), the last one of FY25, will end