Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced the Indian government’s budget for 2015-16 on 28 February 2015, revealing a number of measures to promote welfare and infrastructure development, improve the business environment and boost the economy. Rajrishi Singhal, senior geo-economics fellow at Gateway House, comments on the key features of the Union Budget.
Statement:
“Budget 2015 seems to be only partially aligned with the tenor of economic diplomacy set by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
On one side, the Budget seems less concerned with the Economic Survey’s dire assessment of a global shift in trade realities, under which India is likely to get isolated by the impending giant plurilateral deals. Given such a scenario, Budget 2015 should have ideally, and strategically, included measures that help improve India’s presence in newer markets like Africa or Latin America. Unfortunately, budget allocations to either the External Affairs or Commerce ministries, under various heads, to advance such an objective are lacking. Currently, both Africa and Latin America account for a paltry 15% of India’s exports. Given the slow recovery in Europe, U.S. and Japan, India’s trade relations with Africa and Latin America needed a renewed thrust.
But Budget 2015 does include elements that are aligned with the prime minister’s drive to attract foreign investment for the Make in India programme. Like the Rail Budget, the Union Budget has made a big push towards improving the ground conditions for facilitating both foreign and domestic investments. There is a clear drive to improve efficiency of funds invested, to create a dispute-free environment and ease the overall investment process. This is definitely an improvement over the past practice of announcing grandiose schemes and blue-sky measures.”
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