<b>Ajay Shah:</b> A conservative Budget

But, given the economic slump, it comes up short

Economic conditions in India have been difficult from 2012 onwards. We have slow output growth, weak investment and a balance sheet crisis in many corporations and most banks. The full impact of demonetisation is as yet unknown. The demonetisation episode exacerbated the reputation of inadequate economic policy capacity. We are relieved at the Budget announcements in that there are no odd ideas. The deeper problems of the economy and of the reforms process remain.

The Indian economy got into trouble in 2012. In the preceding decade, projects under implementation (as measured by the CMIE Capex database) had grown six-fold to