Budget 2007 - “It’s not a bad budget at all”

No, please do not go by the caption at the Top as my personal opinion. I heard/ read the similar views from lot of corporates honchos. The best one and most ironical from CCD director Naresh Malhotra " We are hit by the increase in commercial property rentals and will lead to increased prices. This will surely hit our profits. All this when commerce ministry is asking us to double to coffee consumption within 5 years" ..Wait a minute Mr Naresh. Who is bothered about your profits. Do you deserve a profit of 10% more with each Union Budget or do malnourished lakhs of children need water to drink, food to eat. How much better would a country be served by offering handful of pleasant gifts to honchos like you to better your profits and convince your top bosses that you are doing a incredible job. Laurels and promotions on your way and you will be out of this country to head CCD Global operations. How does this idea of "growth" compare to providing lakhs of students access to education, more teachers. Increased spending on agriculture, education and health . Sounds like I am forming an opinion here. Well Not really !!!!!

Two compelling yet opposite thought from industry "Gurus" lead to different interpretations of this Budget. Following Arindham Chaudhry’s fine book on India "The Great Indian Dream" this comes as a dream budget in itself. "He says if middle class is increased, it will create more demand and hence more growth". Increased spending on key areas such as Agriculture, education and Health. Industries such as IT, Telecom to be taxed more to collect the revenues and "Incredible India’s" achievements shared with "The other half- Pathetic India". Perfect it sounds. Isn it ? After all, what would a father having resources to distribute to its 2 sons , one an Indian IT Engineer (Smart, Growing, Professional, Well placed , Progressive ) , another one (uneducated, unemployed, incompetent and not able to meet his 2 days meal) do. No prizes for guessing it right. The Father would allocate the resources to the poor son and also would encourage his Engineer son to take care of his brother and to share his success with the poor guy. The finance minister has acted like a Big Daddy. Exemplary isn it.

On the other hand, a study on McKinsey Quarterly (could not find the link) steers my thoughts in a totally different direction. Some of facts stated in the reports were as follows :
1. Indian household saving is among the highest. Yet only 50% of people put there savings in government led financial institutions.

2. Corporate sector, a major growth engine of India gets only 43% of this money while rest goes to dilapidate sectors of agriculture, public sector companies and inefficient education system.

3. While it is important to address social sector of the country, history(Brazil economy) testifies putting money in high growth sectors would create more jobs, prosperity and cyclic growth.

Seems finance ministry has kick assed the guy who analyzed, complied and formed this report. Corporate sector has not been anything aside from the assurance or rather taking granted there growth story. Agriculture, public sector and education spending has been increased by almost 30%. A completely social budget with an "All-inclusive" caption line.

Now where do I, an avid fan of all three - McKinsey Quarterly, Arindham Chaudry and PC, go from here. Who do i believe ???

Whatever the views be "Chance missed to transform the economy" , "It’s a good budget for long term growth" , "It is not a bad budget at all" , "There is nothing significant in this budget" , n the best "it’s a kutta-billi bidget" I earnestly believe growth lies in Action and not in Planning.

I question , why cannot finance ministry form a team to track each and every rupee disbursed by center to state ministry and to local bodies ??? Why cannot they set up an institutions to complete the golden quadrilateral project by working 24/7 with workers working in 3 shifts of 8 hour each?? Why cannot a institution to monitor the irrigation projects going on the round the country be set up ?? Why cannot government develop a website to list the names of 1 lakh scholarships winners?? Why cannot government set up more B-Schools if ISB can set up a successful school in 4-5 years . Indian student go abroad to study due to lack of infrastructure and opportunities and never return back..then you cry for Brain Drain . Why can not an ordinary man know what is happening with his money ?? Does the numbers matter to me ? Does planning matter to an ordinary person ? No, results and an aggressive approach matter. Whatever be the budget 2008,2009 or 2050 as long as an action oriented approach is adopted, it is going to be same story. Year after year, budget after budget!!!!!!!