Illustration: Jayachandran/MintThe prevailing economic and political situation had increased the difficulty of crafting an effective budget for Union finance minister Arun Jaitley. In order to address growing farm distress, the finance minister announced that minimum support prices (MSP) would be fixed at 1.5 times the production cost. This will help farmers make more informed decisions and get better prices for their produce. The finance minister also announced an ambitious health protection scheme for 100 million poor households. However, under the given circumstances, the finance minister has done well to limit the fiscal slippage.

Source: Mint February 02, 2018 00:22 UTC