Budget 2022: All you want to know but don't always ask

The big elephant in the room is LIC. Every effort is on for its IPO. If that happens, and it probably will, the FY22 fiscal deficit could be less than the estimated 6.8 per cent

Every economist and financial sector analyst has been busy discussing the 11th letter in the English alphabet ahead of the February Budget — K.

The focus is on the K-shaped, or two-speed, recovery. While corporate profitability, record exports, flow of foreign direct investment and a buoyant stock market (till recently) signal the benefits that the affluent income class and industries have been enjoying, there is no end to the sufferings of the lowly paid workers, farmers, and small and medium businesses.

Everyone wants Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to address this in her Budget tomorrow. Apart from an ambitious Rs 6