BALANCING HIGH GROWTH AND SUSTAINABILITY

Addressing the concerns over jobs, giving a rural push and continuing with the high allocation on capex, even while maintaining a tight leash over finances-the challenges before finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman were many. How did she fare? As part of our BITE (Board of India Today Experts) survey, we ask six top economists what their reading of the Union Budget 2024-25 is, its major thrust areas, and some key measures the FM missed out on

Q. What, according to you, is the main thrust of the Union Budget 2024-25?

ASHIMA GOYAL: It has correctly identified and worked on critical bottlenecks that need to be released for India to have sustained high growth. These include raising agricultural productivity and making it climate-proof, creating more infrastructure as well as good jobs, raising the level and amount of job-relevant skills and working with states to improve efficiencies. For real change to happen, it is necessary to get the private sector and states on board. The budget has used some well-designed incentives to do so.

AJIT RANADE: The budget’s main thrust is on providing incentives for job creation, skilling, enhancing human capital and also providing support for small businesses. Skills formation and training is the need for sustainable high growth. Enabling the viability and prosperity of small businesses is also a strategy for inclusive growth. It is actually small businesses that provide more than 40 per cent of jobs, value addition and exports in the industrial sector.

Also, the part of the budget dealing with energy security—both by acknowledging hard-to-abate sectors and the continued emphasis on renewable energy, and now private participation in nuclear power—is a welcome initiative. The other prominent feature of this budget was scrupulous attention to fiscal restraint.

D.K. JOSHI: Budget 2025 maintains prudent fiscal management by improving upon the fiscal deficit target set in the interim budget. It continues the capital expenditure thrust focused on the infrastructure buildout. Revenue spending has been raised to address some pain points. It also announces structural measures for food inflation control.