India's economic review is a feel-good document

The government has come up with a new pre-budget presentation that acts as a spreader of pre-poll optimism but its broad sweep offers only a partial view of the economy at best

It is a universally accepted fact that interim budgets in an election year are likely to be crafted with an eye to the coming political maelstrom. The budget speech typically becomes an occasion for grandstanding, with much energy expended on exaggerating achievements of the government while making generous promises of future giveaways and new opportunities. This year, India's finance ministry has introduced a new practice by releasing a document called The Indian Economy: 

A Review, thereby inviting comparisons with the annual Economic Survey that usually precedes the Union budget by a day or two if general elections are not due. In keeping with an interim budget's hyperbolic air, the review released on Monday has turned out to be a paean to the current government's economic management, while underplaying some of the economy's most chronic problems.