THE RIGHT MIX
   Date :02-Feb-2021

THE RIGHT MIX_1 &nbs
 
 
WHEN the economy is generally described as a political thought-process, when the entire political activity is woven around how the State would fare better with a higher prosperity quotient, the annual national budget becomes an exercise with a high degree of impossibility to attain evenness of allocations of resources as a defining factor. With the nation still smarting under the shadow of one of the worst pandemics in world history, the union budget presented by Finance Minister Ms. Niramala Sitharaman has offered a near-perfect mix of ingredients that would be able to match the vagaries of the disturbed times in which we find ourselves locked. The Union Budget 21 offers a clear idea of how the Government led by Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi has achieved a satisfactory balance among diverse demands that have often pulled the narrow resource-base in different directions.
 
Political detractors may have a few points to talk about while criticising the Union Budget 21, but their statement will have only a limited appeal since the Government has tried its best to address all the important issues that stare the nation in the face. There may be a debate about details, but the overall direction of the economic discourse appears headed to a point of fulfillment of the larger dream of New India. Only the politically-blinded would find faults with the Union Budget 21 while the common man in the street would feel that the Government has addressed almost each of his concerns -- spread over a large gamut of comprehensive security that includes national defence to food to health to education to entrepreneurship to innovation, cumulatively pointing to the wonderful concept of Aatmanirbhar Bharat which is not just a slogan but a potent idea of genuine growth across all sectors of national interests. Growth is written all over in the budget document.
 
When the nation felt threatened with dire consequences of the coronavirus pandemic, the Government unleashed a slew of creative ideas to push growth by stemming the adverse effect of economic slow-down. The Union Budget 21 appears to be a peaking point of the vision that directed the Government’s entire range of efforts in the last one year. Of course, much before the pandemic hit the nation ( and also the world), the Government had already launched major economic reforms in several sectors including banking and manufacturing.It had pushed into the national economy a lot of money so that the nation emerged from the overall sluggishness threatening the general well being. All those ideas find a healthy and happy reflection in the Union Budget 21. Of course, times are difficult and the country will have to keep putting its nose to the wheel long-stretched periods of time. What will be under challenge is the popular culture of over-dependence on the Government on everything.
 
The Union Budget 21 appears to suggest that in the task of national reconstruction, the Government and the people will have to become equal partners. It suggests that the people will have to make an ongoing contribution to generate national surplus. The Union Budget 21 does not push only a hollow slogan but offers an actionable plan to make the country self-reliant via the shortest possible route. It offers a further impetus to the idea for whose fulfillment it has made very sumptuous allocations in areas such as health, railways, education, agriculture and rural sector, and of course national defence. The sheer comprehensiveness of the vision that the Union Budget 21 presents is amazing. The Government has left nothing for chance and nothing for some occult power to descend and do good to the Indian nation. It has included every possible area of national endeavour for elaborate economic consideration. There is no doubt that the Union Budget 21 will act as a true growth-engine for the economy at this crucial cross-roads on the journey of the national recovery. It will offer the people a point of celebration.