A broad-based Budget

Central theme must be low-skilled job creation

Multiple surveys, as well as the evidence provided by the performance of sectors such as two-wheelers, strongly suggest that distress at the lower ends of the income distribution in India is widespread. Each individual piece of evidence — such as the surveys conducted by the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy or the estimates of rural demand provided by consumer goods companies in the earnings seasons — might not be conclusive in isolation. But taken together, the conclusion is inescapable. Three consecutive years of declining volumes of two-wheeler sales domestically is a particularly startling indicator, demonstrating that an informal and rural