Look beyond the short term

There have been few efforts to reform India's education sector seriously over the decades

A few hours from now, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present the Union Budget. She has a particularly tough task this year. She needs to see that the growth momentum is sustained. At the same time, she needs to ensure that the deficit doesn’t go out of control. She has to factor in high oil prices and the possibility of a fresh wave of the pandemic while making revenue and expenditure calculations for the coming year. She has to balance social sector spending with the imperative of cutting subsidies.

After two years of the pandemic, she has her hands full with