Finance minister Arun Jaitley sprang a surprise on Wednesday by presenting a budget that avoided populism in a poll season and laid thrust on cushioning the economy from the disruptive impact of demonetisation. Even ruling party leaders had expected Jaitley to splurge on freebies to different sections of people. In his budget speech in 2015, Jaitley’s focus was growth and investment. If the finance minister used the words “farmers” and “rural” 19 times in his budget speech in 2015, he used them 54 times in 2016. In his Budget speech on Wednesday, he spoke these two words 40 times but also used “investment” and “growth” at least 44 times.

Source: Hindustan Times February 01, 2017 12:09 UTC