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Today, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present the union budget for the 2021-22 fiscal year. Already, expectations of the budget are very high as the Indian economy is showing strong signs of revival after suffering badly during the last fiscal as a result of the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic. Thus, starting from the corporate world to the common people, everyone is eagerly waiting to know how the Union Finance Minister plans to rejuvenate the economy. What made the people more curious about the forthcoming budget is the fact that the Union Finance Minister stated that it would be a ‘dream budget’ like never before, while interacting with various chambers of commerce recently. So, the people are anxious to know what Sitharaman will unfold while presenting her ‘dream budget’ and how she plans to make India’s economy among one of the strongest in the world.
To achieve this goal, the Union Finance Minister will have to increase public spending. She can focus on infrastructure development, healthcare capabilities along with high employment generating sectors and above all in agriculture, as the primary sector of Indian economy was the only bright spot during the troubled period. In other words, Nirmala Sitharaman’s job as Union Finance Minister is well defined. She will have to take appropriate measures to soothe the pains from which the entire nation is suffering from the very beginning of the ongoing fiscal. The government should take countercyclical measures to increase public expenditure to support economic recovery.
Beyond a doubt, the job is challenging to perform but it is not impossible. Various financial institutions of international repute have projected that in the next fiscal, Indian economy would grow at a rate of 11 per cent or more. It may be mentioned here that India is the only country that received such high ratings from the global financial institutions, leaving arch rival China far behind in the race. At the same time, economic surveys have also predicted a bright future for Indian economy despite the pandemic-jolt. Now, the challenge before the Union Finance Minister is to make all these predictions a reality. In order to make the dream a reality, the Union Finance Minister should not adopt populist measures like tax benefits to the rich or offer doles to the poor. Such steps can never make an economy strong. Rather, these are aberrations and harm the economy most. So in the forthcoming budget, the fund should be allocated in such a manner that it will be used to revive the economy and not to be kept aside for other purposes. In this regard, investments in the infrastructure sector can greatly boost the economy as infrastructural facilities always serve as the backbone of an economy. In this regard, Sitharaman can take a leaf out of former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s book. Vajpayee’s ‘Golden Quadrangle’ project revolutionised trade and commerce, as well as transportation patterns in the country. Clearly, the entire nation is expecting such revolutionary steps to revive the Indian economy from the Union Finance Minister.