Budget a right start to resolve jobs issues: Experts at 'Budget with BS'

At the 'Budget with BS' event in Mumbai on Wednesday, economic experts shared their perspectives on the recently introduced Budget during an insightful panel discussion with Business Standard

The Union Budget was the right starting point to resolve India’s jobs problem, said Pranjui Bhandari, MD & chief economist, HSBC, on Wednesday, 31 July.

“...The best thing that the budget did was to bring it to the main front….there are many on incentivising employment, upgrading skills, providing education loans, and more loans to MSMEs which provide jobs. Does this solve India's job problem, the answer is no. It needs a large supply of capital. It was the right starting point…,” she said.

Bhandari made the remarks at ‘Budget with BS: The Fine Print’ – a one-day post-Budget event hosted by Business Standard in Mumbai, which was dedicated to decoding the intricacies of the key financial exercise.

WATCH Budget with BS live on YouTube:
 

In addition to Bhandari, the panel featured noted economists such as Sajjid Chinoy, Chief India Economist at JP Morgan; Samiran Chakraborty, Managing Director and Chief Economist for India at Citigroup; and Indranil Pan, Chief Economist at Yes Bank. The session was moderated by Ashok Bhattacharya, the Editorial Director of Business Standard.

In his remarks, Chinoy highlighted that India faces the medium-term challenge to bring public debt down. “Over the last few years, fiscal policy has been loaded with public and private investment…. in the medium term we need fiscal sustainability and we need to understand how to measure it. There is no magic threshold for debt. The medium-term challenge is how one can bring public debt down. The private sector is a work in progress, consumption has been tepid, and it is important for the deficit to not consolidate too quickly,” he said.

During the discussion, Chakraborty pointed out that the Budget focussed more on Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises or MSMEs because they are employment creators.

“The first five years was about formalisation of the economy, the next five was about infrastructure, the coming five years will be about developing human capital,” Chakraborty said.

In his talk about the Budget FY25, Yes Bank’s Indranil Pan pointed out that the Indian economy is stuck at pushing per capita income higher. “If we have to elevate ourselves it has to come from per capita income where we suffer,” he said, noting that the Budget is trying to achieve this goal.