NDTV looked liked it has been a target of a takeover attempt by a dozen CEOs all of whom had demanded a seat on the budget panel, while CNN-IBN demonstrated that inclusive budget discussion, like inclusive growth, can be a concept hard to implement. There were MPs who had nothing to contribute bar their being TV regulars.

Sometimes the CNN-IBN panel had up to three economists plus one knowledgeable co-anchor from the CNBC stable, but still the discussion had the same quality as government welfare programmes: fragmentary and only 15 per cent of every decibel produced effectively reaching the audience.

It’s not that economics and news TV are structurally unsuited to each other. When there’s time, as there’s during a long interview, and if the interviewers are good, there’s plenty that’s interesting. NDTV’s and CNN-IBN’s interviews with Pranab Mukherjee were both good, as was the ET Now journalist’s interview with the PM. ET now impressed with its during-budget-speech analysis — very sharp, probably indication of strong backend resources — but it wasn’t equally noticeable in its budget coverage. Like on NDTV and CNBC, there were too many CEOs.

Hats off to the CNN-IBN panelist who said there’s little point asking CEOs to be objective about the budget on live TV. Private investment explains India’s economic surge but the men and women who decide on most of this investment are among the most anodyne and, frankly, boring TV guests on budget day.

How wonderful would it be to hear a CEO say this: if a budget doesn’t make people like me feel more optimistic about the future, then given that private investment drives growth, I would say this budget has fallen short of what the economy needed. Then an economist would get at least 5 minutes to parse the CEO’s thesis. Then an anchor will pithily sum it all up. You have dream budgets. That will be dream budget coverage.

... contd.