Interim Budget 2024-25: A confident and optimistic report

In a Budget celebrating the achievements in the last decade, there are few announcements with any fiscal magnitude attached

In the spirit of an Interim Budget, the Budget speech of Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman provided a recap of the achievements in the last 10 years and made some broad announcements on the path ahead in the coming years on the presumption her party, the Bharatiya Janata Party, would return to power. The lack of a perceived need for new announcements points to a confident government. Two significant announcements relate to the adherence to fiscal consolidation with an announced fiscal deficit to gross domestic product of 5.1 per cent for 2024-25 and an attempt to clean up the direct