Finance minister Arun Jaitley arrives at Parliament to present the Union budget in New Delhi on 1 February. The quick summation is that while this period has witnessed an incredible transformation of the Indian economy, the scope and significance of the Union budget is shrinking progressively. Even in the mind space, despite the showbiz twist by electronic media (one TV channel had a live bovine presence on the sets), the Union budget is no longer all-consuming. The Union budget not surprisingly therefore occupied centre stage in the economic calendar of the nation. Add all this up and it is apparent that the role of the Union budget is considerably diminished—and this even after the Railway budget was merged with it.

Source: Mint February 04, 2018 18:22 UTC