A brief overlook at the themes of budgets that have been announced ever since 1991 suggests that the 90s were all about economic reforms. While the 2000-2010 period was about fiscal consolidation, the post-2010 period till so far has been more about social spending. The administered interest rate structure was considerably relaxed, giving greater flexibility to the structure of interest rates. His budgets provided the requisite funding for the Smart Cities project, Digital India programme and the Make in India initiative. He raised the personal income tax exemption limit from ₹2 lakh to ₹2.5 lakh in 2014.

Source: Mint July 02, 2019 11:48 UTC