Saptrishi Budget; Tech Bond; Un-mimic Rajnikanth
Opinion Watch
Budget Slogans
Finance Minister Nirmala Sithraman delivered a ‘Saptrishi’ Budget. She armed the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party with several slogans – Budget for middle class, women, youth, etc. She is in the league of Moraji Desai, Manmohan Singh, Yashwant Sinha, P Chidambaram and Arun Jaitely for presenting five consecutive Budgets. But she may be remembered as a Finance Minister who made the least impact on the directions of the Indian economy, for she is writing explanatory notes to Jaitely’s Budget speeches only.
The Hindu in an Editorial has said that Sitharaman presented a Budget for affluent, for the maximum benefits accrue to the highest income tax bracket people. The Chennai-based daily may be party correct, for Sithraman has also scorched tax free insurance income for high income people. The daily also said that there is a marginal increase of just 0.1 per cent in financial allocation for rural development, 5.3 per cent of the total Budget. But the FM has provided for almost 10 per cent of the Budget for infrastructure, which may balance out, as ripple effects of public expenditure may spread to rural areas also. The government is foregoing just Rs 37,000 crores in direct taxes from juggling of slabs and other measures, added the daily. The Times of India, The Economic Times, The Indian Express, The Asian Age have lauded the Budget for sticking to fiscal consolidation.
The Indian economy may remain in 6-7 per cent GDP growth range in the immediate future. The Budget is without a blueprint to break this bind. The Budget also fails to break the curse of jobless growth (uninterrupted since 2011) that is raising a population of unemployed youth. The Narendra Modi government had choices to break free of the food and fertilizer subsidies maze that serve interest of powerful vested interests to fire growth engines.
Tech Bond
Laments among the strategic thinkers for decades have been that except for France, none of the western powers share critical technology with India. Some of the initiative of India were pushed back by decades on account of rather punitive measures by the western nations led by the US. But there appears to be early signs of a few baby steps in the direction of a welcome change.
The Indian Express in an Editorial has sought to sift the outcome of the bilateral talks between the national security advisor Ajit Doval and his US counterpart Jake Sullivan. The two sides have committed to a “new roadmap for deeper military and techno-economic cooperation” in the areas of the initiative for Critical and Emerging Technology (iCET), which deals with – quantum computing, semi-conductor, 5G and 6G and also civilian space collaboration. The Noida-based also stated that the two sides will seek to boost defence productions also.
The Ukraine War theatre is showing that the next generation technological fire play is being tested by the NATO against Russia. The scale of tech-enabled firepower has given Ukraine an edge. India may need to take a deeper look at the Ukraine War.
Un-mimic Rajnikanth
Superstar Rajnikanth wants a ban on comedians mimicking him. He has given a public notice to this effect. The Pioneer in an Editorial has reminded the superstar that his predecessors such as MG Ramachandran, Shivaji Ganesan, Khusbu never objected when their names were freely used by their fans. The Noida-based daily also stated that comedy is the national pastime of India. Rajnikanth through his lawyer has said that whoever uses his style, mannerism, name for commercial purposes would face civil and criminal action. Rajnikanth is self-patenting himself.
About The Author
