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Having led a colorful past in which the Indian Railways (IR) was presenting its own budget every year since Independence and even prior to it as a colonial legacy, the Modi Government in its characteristic Schumpeterian creative destruction ended this practice this year by subsuming it in the General Budget. While nobody was bemoaning the loss of this practice, leave aside the army of employees of the IR, one expected some soothing steps to prepare the dedicated staff to this wrenching change by some grandstanding gestures on the part of the Centre to rev up the system.

In the wake of an impulsive but damaging hit on the economy and masses through abrupt demonetisation, whatever its sugary objectives, a helpless Finance Minister Mr Arun Jaitley has tried to do a cover-up operation through his Budget for 2017/18. In the result, there is little promise of a growth spurt or private investment revival of an order needed to create jobs, in the penultimate year of the Modi Government’s five-year term.

These is a proverb that when America sneezes, world catches cold. Now, when President Donald Trump sings hosannas to America First and Buy America and Hire Americans, China shivers on growth. China is an export oriented economy and USA is the prime engine for China’s growth. Chinese fears surfaced when President Xi Jinping ranted in World Economic Forum at Davos “The point I want to make is that many of the problems troubling the world are not caused by economic globalization”.

NEW DELHI: The central secretariat of the Communist Party of India (CPI) has strongly criticized the budget presented by Arun Jaitley today by terming it as anti-people and pro-corporate. Further, the budget gives no concessions to the farmers who are burdened with huge loans and are committing suicide.

It’s a must-win situation for Narendra Modi in Uttar Pradesh. The prime minister and his party know that even an indeterminate outcome producing a hung assembly can raise doubts about their chances in 2019. Since Modi does not want to be a one-time prime minister, he has to come out unambiguously on top in UP. For him and the BJP, the stakes have never been higher.

The penultimate Budget of the NDA government, presented to Parliament, is replete with surprises as the feisty Finance Minister Mr. Arun Jaitley was able to restrict his additional resources mobilizations (ARMs) efforts through tax proposals to Rs 20,000 crore in a two trillion dollar economy.

The 2017-18 budget is a desperate gamble of the NDA government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to hoodwink the common masses by sidelining the adverse impact of the demonetisation on the rural economy, especially the informal sector by highlighting the so called new programmes in agriculture. The effects of demonetisation will not spill over the next year-that is the brunt of the message in the Economic Survey and the Budget but what will happen to the loss of jobs during the current financial year due to demonetisation that has disrupted the rural economy? There is no answer and there is no concerted move to create additional jobs in the economy while the Government is talking of a cashless one.

In the post-demonetisation phase with domestic economy crawling at a dispiriting pace tepid pace presaging a fraught short-term future, the pre-budget Economic Survey makes bold to claim that India’s sweet spot economy is enduring not evanescent. It foresees real GDP growth for the next fiscal 2017-18 to be in the 6.75-7.50 per cent.

At no time did UP witness so many stake-holders fighting for their prestige as in the 2017 Assembly polls. Stakes are indeed very high for them and their parties. It is a fight for survival for the two regional parties SP and the BSP, last ditch battle to remain relevant for the congress and a test on the BJP’s central leadership of Modi and Amit Shah. It could be the end of the road for the SP patriarch Mulayam Singh, fading away for the supremo chief Mayawati and RLD chief Ajit Singh, if they fail.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The ruling BJP leaders, the Prime Minister downwards, trumpet the delights of ‘cooperative federalism’ at regular intervals. But the dichotomy between their public pronouncements and practice is as dangerous as it is frightening.