Need to think big and do big: Incremental approach won't do

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has diligently done what has been asked of her, as she has consistently done over the last six years to deliver a Budget document with reasonable fiscal discipline and limited reform ambitions.

- ROHIT LAMBA

The question that remains is whether business as usual is good enough. The short answer is no. In understanding the scale of challenges ahead, the nine priorities she has laid out are worth revisiting.

First is productivity in the agricultural sector. We saw an increase in the share of labour in agriculture even before the pandemic, despite farmer incomes remaining flat-worrisome signs for a developing economy. The two key problems are that most policies are designed with the consumer in mind and not the farmer, and there is very little research and development (R&D) spending in agriculture. The biggest return on investment lies there. The obsessive focus on minimum support prices has become a populist trap.

The second is stagnant employment opportunities and low levels of skills among those joining the labour force. It is commendable that the government has finally recognised there is a problem here. The proposed solutions, in employmentlinked incentives, though, are more of the usual and may improve outcomes at the margins at best. The central problem is one of poor human capital, on which the National Education Policy 2020 has excellent ideas. But it is garnering dust.