No one can blame us for staring in complete disbelief at the FM who delivered a budget completely bereft of any semblance of reform. Perhaps we’ve been conditioned to expect too much from the man who delivered a ‘dream budget’ 10 years ago. Perhaps it is time to understand that the hype associated with the Budget is misplaced. We should not place the responsibility of initiating big reforms that have the potential to change our lives on this routine exercise. Having resigned to this conclusion, it is still tough to ignore the theoretical premise of the budget that still gapes at us eager citizens.

Consider the pet theme of the year: agriculture. After reading the Economic Survey, one would have assumed the problems in this sector are only too well known to policymakers. Consider the approach proposed in the budget for the agricultural sector. The farmer will acquire credit cards applying to banks, now reaching out to him. He will then await the high yielding seeds that the Indian Institute of Pulses Research will produce, since the government grant would have funded the research. He will then take subsidies from Nabard for rainwater harvesting. He will also attend the water harvesting training programme which has now attracted a huge talent pool of 3,200 new trainers. The new T&V team will additionally help him with the crop. Of course, the fertiliser subsidy is another help. We can expect then, that agricultural production will soar, and the farmer will finally get ‘included’ in the GDP growth mela, well in time for the next elections. Suppose for some reason the entire effort fails, there is insurance, funded by the government. As for the investment, we all can buy the new tax-free Nabard bonds, which won’t just fund the subsidies but also revive the RRBs to health. If that is not adequate, NRIs will buy the RRB deposits. As for the private sector’s participation in agriculture, we must learn not to read too much into the tiny boxes in economic surveys.

... contd.