Budget 2008-09 has been lauded loud by many classes of people, and it appears that it addresses the concern of most of them. Thus the document is probably successful in its basic objective of addressing all and sundry. This please-all feature has made the budget speech of the finance minister an exercise in a non-budget policy and political document.

A budget is basically a financial statement and its covering speech ought to be a description required to understand and apprecia...

The economic survey 2007-08, Railway Budget and the Union Budget 2008 were the three major economic events of the last week of February. On one hand, Economic Survey helps us acquaint ourselves with the present status of Indian economy and on the other, two budgets give us a fairly broad idea about how the government is planning to proceed and in which direction.

The Budget is important in the sense that it leaves far-reaching and long-lasting effects on the society and its dif...

Lalu Prasad, the Union Railway Minister, was on the job again. His performance was in line with what was expected of him. He was with the same rustic look, characteristic humour and uncharacteristic lack of humility (in almost all the verses he has quoted he has showered praises on himself, singularly). Last year, when he was presenting the budget, opposition members kept shouting in the well of the house but the unperturbed man did not care. This year the opposition benches become wiser an...

The Union Budget 2008-09 sparked off a debate on the farmers’ loan. Many commentators said that the loan waiving will have little impact as 65 to 70 per cent of those who hold land do not get bank loans at all. Instead they had to rely on village money-lenders and mahajans, who extract huge interest from them.

The debate on the Union budget at least exposes the helplessness of the government in bailing out this section of the society. In a way we have not only accepted th...