FDI in Multi Brand Retail

Image Courtesy : The Hindu, Google

Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in multi brand retail was one of the serious issues that created a big debate in India last year. When the UPA government announced its decision of allowing 51% foreign direct investment in the Indian multi brand retail, it spurred controversies and agitation from the opposite party, major activists and farmers. India is still considered as an agrarian country as agriculture being the prime activity and source of income to the farmers.  Ever since the importance given to the industrial revolution leading to rapid economic growth the agricultural sector has taken a back seat among the political fraternity.  But a country like India where agriculture has been in existence for years and continue to provide livelihood for many, should not neglect this sector at any cost. The government over the years has ignored this one particular sector and the plight of Indian farmers. This has lead to the situation of stagnating agricultural growth and increasing suicides among the desperate farmers. The only period in which agriculture was given due importance and huge expenditure was implemented in this sector was during the first five year plan. At this present scenario, where is the meaning to the concept of inclusive growth and sustainable development?

The western civilization is known for its robust technological advancement and extravagant spending. India of late has become immune to these western practices due to globalization and as a resultant of the change in taste and preferences of the Indian consumers. Consumerism has grown over the years and people are now open to new innovative products. The younger generations of India have become more resilient and familiar with foreign brands. The urban youth are comfortable and are gaga over foreign goods from English music to cosmetics and apparels. Barack Obama, the president of the USA came in power with the election slogan “Change is what America need and we will make the change happen” on the wake of the financial crisis. He did know where to go for this change. Obama targeted the Indian market to boost the American economy. The Indian retail sector is growing tremendously since the new economic policy opened Indian market to the global market in 1991. The Indian retail sector is the second largest source of employment after agriculture and accounts for over ten percent of the total GDP. This gives us a point that these two are the most important sectors that generates employment opportunities for the mass of Indian population. The Indian retail market is expected to grow at a faster rate in coming years and hit $700 billion by 2015. The continuous growth in this sector is mainly attributed to the increasing population and urbanization. India has the highest rate of change in its urban population of all the BRICS nations. These have created the interests of foreign investors and Obama to push the FDI policy in multi brand retail in India.

Given the growing transformation of the Indian retail sector the question is whether FDI in this segment will create any good to the Indians. The answer could be not much because of the varied composition of the Indian retail sector and keeping in mind the informal nature of the Indian economy. The retail space in our economy is highly fragmented and dominated by the unorganized sector namely the local kirana stores and pavement vendors. However, issues such as this always have its own good and bad. Let us analyze the various aspect of this decision. The motive behind allowing FDI in the retail sector will act as a catalyst to spur competition in the industry. The Indian retail sector in the recent years has given importance to quality products and brands and this has encouraged foreign investments. On this regard people of India now have easy access to quality and new products. The FDI in Indian retail sector will develop infrastructure and logistics which is now highly necessary for India to achieve its potential growth target.  This will also result in increased global reach of the Indian goods and efficient production and distribution system. The domestic demand in the recent years has declined as a result of which India’s current GDP is low at 5.3 percent.  The FDI in the retail sector will boost domestic demand and take india on the path of increasing growth trajectory. The foreign investment will improve storage facilities as India is the second largest producer of vegetables and increase the shelf life of perishable goods. This aspect is very important right from the time of production to the sales. An efficient cold storage system avoids distress sales.  As an increase in migration and urbanization FDI in retail sector is likely to pay more for the workers. The FDI will attract technological development and give Indian retail sector the touch of sophisticated high end products and sevices. Many agricultural lands in India are fertile but face drought and lack good monsoon and that has resulted in low production and supply. Because of this there is a huge demand supply mismatch. The big retail chains solve this problem to a great extent. The Public Distribution System (PDS) in India is inefficient with lot of leakages and the FDI in retail sector will improve the distribution process and control inflation in the short run. India is also facing the problem of twin deficit. The widening Current Account Deficit and fiscal deficit is of serious worry. There has been huge trade imbalance as exports have come down and imports are increasing sharply. In such a state it is high time that we start attracting capital inflows and foreign cash flows to boost the exports and domestic demand and finance the deficit. These are the only notable major advantages of allowing FDI in multi brand retail in India.

The major concern and claim over the FDI in retail space is that it will affect the small retail shops and local kirana stores. On this regard the FDI in retail sector and the welcoming of big foreign retail giants like walmart and carrefour will definitely affect the local kirana stores but only to a certain extent. This is because the foreign retailers concentrate only on the urban areas and the rural people can still buy from their local stores and groceries with whom they are comfortable with. Even in the urban area the majority of the people are in middle class who often visit these small stores keeping in mind about their budget and continuing increase in the prices of the FMCG goods. So the FDI in multi brand retail will only favour the rich and the middle class on certain aspects. It will definitely not increase employment opportunities in the long run. They have their own terms and condition and that will only be given emphasis on the long run. They take control of price and charge beyond the market price once they gain monopolistic power. They follow predatory pricing. The FDI in retail sector is likely to drain out the country’s share of revenue to foreign countries. The FDI in multi brand retail will definitely affect the Indian farmers. Though they claim that there exists transparency and the big retail giants directly buy the produce from the farmers and pay them the correct price, this will never happen so. By allowing FDI in retail sector it is likely to create an unhealthy competition by not providing a level play for the domestic producers. The FDI policy is bound to affect and dump the domestic producers.

FDI in multi brand retail is good and can reap benefits only in the long run. The FDI policy is such an important concept that has serious implication in the domestic economy and foreign reserve of the country. The wise question to ask is what sectors need the FDI policy? It is not all the sectors that need FDI. So it is wise to allow foreign investment in particular sector that actually need FDI like defense and health sector for instance. The current FDI limit in defense is just 26% and now the union minister for commerce and industry, Anand Sharma urged the government to raise the FDI to 74%.  The FDI policy should be implemented and liberalized in such a way that it benefits everyone and is in line with our objectives. The finance minister in his recent budget has clearly defined and distinguished between Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and Foreign Institutional Investment (FII). This will reduce the ambiguity around foreign investments.One of the good part of this decision is that the central government has given the choice to the state government whether to welcome FDI in multi brand retail or not in their respective states. At the current situation with slow economic growth and stagflation the FDI in retail sector will boost the domestic demand and infrastructure. The finance minister in recent times has also stressed many times the importance of FDI in retail and it is necessary to meet the huge CAD and fiscal deficit. But recent reports reveal that walmart spent about Rs. 125 crore lobbying Indian lawmakers to enter the Indian market. This is something serious, government should be in favour of the citizens and particularly farmers and not allow FDI with the motive of bribery and increasing their own pocket. This is so easy to happen as corruption is deep rooted in Indian politics. If this is going to be the primary concern of our government then the FDI policy will not achieve the desired results. 

Monetary Policy - The expectation begins

The Reserve Bank of India, central bank of India is the sole authority of the monetary policy. It has the command over the monetary policy and is the key player in the banking community as a whole. It is the lender of last resort.  As two sides of a coin any economy is managed by fiscal policy and monetary policy. Government implements the fiscal policy which involves government expenditure, public spending, subsidies and tax policies. The other one, monetary policy is implemented by the central bank of India that involves changes in key policy rates and amount of money supply in the economy. The RBI by regulating the monetary policy promotes financial and price stability to control inflation and promote economic growth.

The policy rates that are managed by the Reserve Bank of India are interest rates, Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR), repo rate, reverse repo rate and statutory liquidity ratio (SLR). These are the key policy rates that determine the money supply in the economy and the feasibility of personal and corporate finance in the country. The cash reserve ratio is the amount of funds that the bank must keep with the RBI as reserve in the form of cash. CRR is a tool used by the RBI to drain excess liquidity in the market and it is also used as a tool to pump in money for the growth of the economy from time to time. This is used as a powerful tool to maintain liquidity in the banking system. Increase in the CRR rate means that the banks have less funds and the money is taken out of circulation. The CRR cannot exceed more than 15 percent. The repo rate is the rate at which RBI lends money to the Indian banks. Sometimes the banks borrow money from RBI to improve their liquidity and credit balance in tough times. A reduction in the repo rate helps the banks to borrow money from RBI at cheaper rates. Reverse Repo Rate is the rate at which RBI borrows money from the commercial banks. Banks are always happy to lend money to RBI since their money is in safe hands. An increase in the reverse repo rate encourages banks to park more funds with the RBI to receive higher returns. It is also used as tool to drain away excess money out of the banking system. Statutory Liquidity Ratio (SLR) means the amount of funds the commercial banks are required to maintain with the RBI in the form of gold or government approved securities before providing credit to their customers. It is the ratio of liquid assets to the Net Demand and Time Liabilities. RBI can increase this ratio upto 40%. Some of the other monetary policy rates include cash-deposit ratio, credit-deposit ratio, investment deposit ratio, base rate and Marginal Standing Facility rate (MSF).

Every time when the RBI announces its policy announcements there is a lot of talk and expectations from bankers and the industry heads .This shows how important monetary policy affects the business and growth in the economy.  Traditionally the monetary policy is announced twice a year one from April to September and the other from October to March and now it is announced every quarter. But in recent times the monetary policy has become dynamic in nature and because of the complex environment RBI reverses it from time to time depending on the state of the economy. The mid quarter review of monetary policy is scheduled to be announced tomorrow on March 19. At this time of the hour people start anticipating on rate cuts and RBI is confronted with the difficult task of fulfilling market sentiments and reckon with economic data. The global crisis has caused a serious turmoil in the Indian economy and thus the RBI has maintained a strict monetary policy by keeping its policy rates intact for a very long period. This tight monetary policy stance was also because of the huge fiscal stimulas provided by the government post the crisis which created the present inflationary situation. Inflation and economic growth has a trade off and hence a careful implementation of policy is required knowing the present situation of persistent high inflation and sluggish economic growth.

Since March 2010 the RBI has increased the repo rate from 4.75% to 7.75% to date to control the high inflation. These high interest rates have controlled the inflation to a certain extent but have contributed to a slow economic growth. This has discouraged people from industries and they are now seriously expecting a further rate cut since the last third quarter monetary policy. The last monetary policy saw rate cuts in repo rate and CRR as expected by many. Will the RBI further cut the rates even this time to encourage growth? This time the monetary policy is quite special as it is the one that is after the budget and the last one before the start of the next financial year. The finance minister after presenting the budget has reiterated that it is now the sole responsibility of the RBI to boost the growth and move the economy forward.  The CRR and repo rate has been reduced by 25 basis points from 4.25% to 4% and from 8% to 7.75% respectively in the last monetary policy review. As now the budget is over with a move towards controlling the fiscal deficit we can now expect the RBI for rate cuts. Since the announcement of the budget there is quite good news about some of the key indicators of the economy. The Wholesale Price Index (WPI) that includes the non-food commodities came low to 6.84%. The inflation on this segment has been slowing steadily. However, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) is a big worry as it is at an all time high of 10.91 percent. The RBI along with the government, after the budget is expected to encourage household financial savings.The industrial output data, IIP numbers show some positive sign in some of the key sectors. The industrial output rose by 1 percent since last year that shows a recovery is possible. Figures in the auto sector and service sector have been showing good trend. So it is expected that the RBI will reduce its key rates by atleast 0.25 percentage points but there is no chance of increasing the rates. Though a reduction in the policy rates is expected the lending rates may not fall as the banks reduced it only a month ago since the last review.

The current rates are:

Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR): 4%

Repo Rate: 7.75%

Statutory Liquidity Ratio (SLR): 23%

Reverse Repo Rate: 6.75%

Bank Rate: 8.75%

The Future India - Where are we heading?

India is one of the oldest countries in Asia that has come a long way to bear the tag of emerging nations. Over the years India has progressed well in some of the major fields and has proved the world that it has the potential to become a leading economy. Many Indians have proved their mettle in various international arenas and have made the world to take a look at them. Ever since the independence India has shown path breaking developments in different sectors particularly trade and scientific developments. India has become a member of the G20 nations and it is one of the members of BRICS nations. All these drastic changes have made India joining the club of developing countries. On account of these changes former president and scientist Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam has envisaged a vision - India 2020.

It has been 65 years since India got freedom from the British rule and becoming an independent country after partition. This is supposed to be quite a very long time but we are still a developing nation. This is really something to take note of. How long are we going to be called as a developing country? When are we going to become a developed country?  Are we going to achieve our vision of India 2020 with the present rate at which India is growing? Definitely the answer is no. Generations after generation we keep reading the same statement in history “India is a developing country”. We are on the path of becoming a leading economy of the world. India realized the need to open its market to the global economy and thus came the New Economic Policy in 1991. India at that time was facing a severe Balance Of Payments (BOP) problem. The new economic policy introduced the concept LPG. It is liberalizing the rules and trade barriers, privatization of public sector companies and globalization of the Indian economy. Ever since opening our economy to the global market we have been witnessing a dramatic change in trade and business and we were able to achieve a rapid economic growth. Consumerism has grown tremendously and people are now open to innovative products. If you just see Gross Domestic Product as the only measure of our development as politicians claim it to be then you are wrong. Because GDP fail to reflect the real prosperity of a nation. Let us now see where we stand in some of the key indicators on global scale.

India is ranked at 134 out of 187 countries in Human Development Index as per 2011 data. The HDI is a measure of education, health, standard of living and income parameters. India falls under the category of medium human development. Our country also lags behind many other Asian countries like china, srilanka and Maldives. The HDI value increased marginally from 0.344 to 0.547 between 1980 and 2011 on account of increase in life expectancy. On Quality Of Life Index it ranks at 77 out of 111 countries. On literacy India is ranked at 168 out of 234 countries. India despite rapid economic growth has a very low per capita income making it the poorest country among the G20 nations. This is because of huge income gap and wealth inequality. India ranks 95 out of 178 countries in terms of corruption which is bit surprising making us think how much other countries are involved in corruption. Billions of black money is slashed away by our politicians at Swiss bank. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development for international student assessment program ranked India at 72 out of 73 on global educational survey. Indian students performed poorly. The education system for a long time has undergone serious criticism. The Indian education system is mostly based on just teacher student interaction in classroom and rote learning. The funds allocated for education even in the recent budget is very low compared to global standards. The OECD report also stated that it is very difficult doing business in India. The report ranked India at 173. This is hugely because the clearance is very slow in our country. Malnutrition and hunger level is on rise. The only area in which we top is the population rate on which we are ranked at 2 among 221 countries, china being the first.

China is the biggest competitor of India and has emerged as one of the super power economy in the recent times. This is mainly attributed to their overwhelming performance post the global crisis. And they almost lead us on various fronts. Many other countries like Japan, Singapore and Malaysia have developed on various fields like technology, infrastructural development and per capita income. So what is that making our country to lag behind all these other emerging economies? The answer is politics. The present political system in India is ruled by the older generations. Indian politics is considered to be very worst and dirty with huge corruption and false promises. A common man named Anna Hazzare has been denied and criticized by the ruling government for raising his voice against corruption in India and demanding a bill to abolish corruption in India. The news was all over for a while and then gone in vain. If alone all these black money slashed away by our politicians is brought to our country, India will be free from all foreign debts and can finance the current fiscal deficit and trade deficit which is of a big worry. And moreover the money can be used for infrastructural development which is now very much essential for the current economic slowdown. With the defense expenditure being hiked in every budget for improving the standard of our armed forces , protecting our country from terrorism we still live with constant fear of attacks. The tragic Mumbai blast and the recent bomb blast at Hyderabad stands testimony to it. What about attacks caused internally? Indian women face insecurity and now after the recent Delhi gang rape they live with fear and feel insecure. The sad part is that the president’s son calling the protests on the case as a drama. There has been increasing suicides of farmers and students. With all this now you can guess where we will stand at the Happy Planet Index.  So only if the political system is cleaned and handed over to the next generation who are ambitious with bigger dreams can we expect a better India. If not, only if the current politicians come to sense and realise their actual job we will be able to achieve our visions and goals if not by 2020 atleast by 2050.

Celebrating International Women's Day

India is a country known for its tradition and cultural distinct. It is a nation with rich diversity and heritage and hence is unique. The status and role of women in India have changed over the years. Women have started to come out of their comfort zone and followed their dreams. They have also trodden new path to follow. Today, they are with big ambitions to explore and achieve great things that are considered to be not for them. There is a growing number of women entering in all sectors from defense to corporate. They have made their presence felt in a male dominated society with niche. So in a time when we witness such a transformation from their side, it is equally important that we men and as a nation stand together to support them and pursue their dream with equal rights and opportunities.

A nation that glorifies its values and ethics now seems to be losing all that. By now and then almost every day we hear discrimination and assault against women. This is a great shame to our country where women like Rani Lakshmi Bhai, Sarojini Naidu, Vijaylaksmi Pandit and many more had played a prominent role in our freedom struggle. The fear of being discriminated and subdued makes our women go back to their role of fulfilling others age old wishes. The recent murder of a Delhi college girl has raised millions of protesters who demand for strict law and policies. But since then its really disheartening to hear more news of assault against women instead we should be hearing news about laws that punishes this act seriously. Its high time our government looks into this issue and protect our women by providing them a safe and secure environment apart from just introducing new initiatives for their upliftment. First of all women need a safe place to come out and work. So policies that aim at safety of women is the need of the hour. The true meaning of celebrating women’s day is when they live life of their own with equal freedom, rights and security. Lets all hope that this year the International women’s day brings joys and hopes to all women out there to tread their journey without any social barriers.

The so called "Dream Budget"

There was a huge speculation and expectation from all sectors of the economy over the recently announced union budget 2013-14. People from every walk of life are generally concerned about the budget as it lays the necessary foundation and allocates resources for the functioning and wellbeing of the economy. The primary role of the government is to ensure its people a healthy environment so as to enable its citizens to pursue their activities with ease and comfort. In this regard the budget has to be implemented in such a way that it provides some certainty about its allocation and policies. As Mr. P. Chidambaram in his budget speech has clearly said that “the purpose of the budget and the job of the finance minister is to create the economic space and find the resources to achieve the socio economic objectives.”

Now that the presentation is over and the curtains are closed the question is that how well as he achieved his task.  And now as the speculation that started and was on clouds over a month has reached its bottom, the question that arises in all our minds is how far our expectations are fulfilled? Both the bureaucrats and the common man have their own concerns about the budget. Given the difficult situation the Indian economy is facing right now as growth plummets, persistent high inflation, huge fiscal deficit and widening current account deficit. The current budget in this scene is not all together a disappointment but with hope and skepticism. The finance minister though has not done much anything, this is the right move and the path to follow in the short run to reach the potential growth target of 8 percent.

The current fiscal deficit is 5.2 percent of the total GDP and the finance minister has targeted to bring it down to 4.8 percent of GDP in the next year. The only possible way to achieve this is by introducing austerity measures which is reducing the government expenditure and increasing the tax to generate revenue to finance the hovering fiscal deficit .However the government and the finance minister has not taken this stand as the Eurozone countries especially Greece and Spain has been severely affected because of austerity. The austerity measures in the Eurozone were unavoidable as its financial institutions have been seriously broken down and it has been forced upon by them. But that is not the case with India, the Indian banks and other financial institution has been doing reasonably well in the post financial crisis of 2008. The reserve bank of India following a strict monetary policy suit as able to achieve its objective quite well. So it is fair enough to say that the government is solely responsible for this tough situation with respect to its huge fiscal deficit. The government with its misguided policies in the recent years by not properly weighing down between the plan and non-plan expenditure has brought us to this situation.

The finance minister has this time carefully estimated his expenditure plans and allocated the funds efficiently only to the necessary programs that promotes growth. This budget has clearly concentrated on the welfare schemes as it has introduced a series of measures to lift the women, scheduled castes and scheduled tribes. The all women bank is a positive and welcome move. The gender budget has Rs. 97,134 crore and the child budget has Rs. 77,236 crore in this budget. The budget also allocated Rs. 1000 crore to Nirbhaya fund to empower women and keep them safe and secure on the wake of continuous discrimination and assault to women. As farmers are worried about the FDI in the multi brand retail the government in this budget has given some boost to the agricultural sector. The government has allocated Rs.7,00,000 crore to farmers as agricultural credit. The government has provided Rs. 500 crore to start crop diversification program. The budget has provided Rs. 200 crore to start a major initiative for establishing Nutri farms. On the Research and development front he has provided funds to certain agricultural institutes. The Food subsidy bill has been proposed and he has just added Rs. 5000 crore for food subsidy bill. The budget has allocated Rs. 14,873 crore for JNNURM making a promise of 10,000 buses which is likely to make transportation easier. There is good news for the textile industry as Rs. 2400 crore is allocated for modernization of power loom sector. The plan expenditure for 2013-14 is 24% higher than the revised estimates and the non-plan expenditure is 10.81% higher than the revised estimates. Enough funds have been allocated for infrastructure development. He has proposed 37,330 crore for health out of which Rs.4, 727 crore is allocated for medical education, training and research. The mid-day meal scheme is provided with Rs. 13,215 crore. The government has allocated Rs. 80,194 crore for rural development and its flagship programs making an increase of 46 percent out of which MGNREGS is provided with Rs. 33,000 crore, Pradama Mantri Gram Sadak Yojna (PMGSY) will get Rs. 21,700 crore and Indira Awas Yojna (IAY) is provided with Rs. 15,184 Crore. The finance minister has also allocated sufficient funds for the Ministry of Human Resource Development for providing incentives to the youth by increasing jobs and employment opportunities. The defense expenditure has been hiked by 5.3 percent to Rs. 2,03,672 crore. However a little reduction on this segment would have been good as it is one sector that gets huge funds in the recent years. Apart from these the finance minister has allocated sufficient and enough funds to various department and its programs.

The budget as expected by many as turned to investment led growth from consumption led growth. In a situation that demands fiscal prudence Mr. Chidambaram has provided incentives and boosted the investment scenario which is very much essential to kick start the growth. It is really disappointing to see that middle class are the one who will be worst affected. It seems they are always prone to difficulties in most of the situations. This budget also has not done anything good to this class except maintaining a lowest tax slab rate to offset the inflationary burden on the middle class. A 10% surcharge on the super-rich though temporary, is good as they won’t mind to pay a little more. This will also reduce the income and wealth inequality as it is one of the reasons for depression. The finance minister has said the Current Account Deficit (CAD) is a serious worry. The import of coal is expected to come down as domestic coal production gets a boost from the move to permit Coal India to partner with private companies. Import of oil and gold are the major component for the widening current account deficit. The Oil and gas industry gets a boost by moving from profit sharing to revenue sharing and faster clearances for exploration blocks. The import duty on gold has been hiked to reduce the craving demand for the yellow metal.  The economic survey has stated that the savings at its eight year low a day before the budget.  The share of the financial savings against physical saving as reduced in the recent years. The government has introduced a lot in this segment to boost investor confidence. An idea to introduce Inflation Indexed Bond has been made in the budget to protect household savings from inflation. Bonds such as this one will be remarkable in the present inflationary situation and will reduce the demand for gold which is being considered as a hedge against inflation. The budget has also proposed to raise the income limit for Rajiv Gandhi Equity Saving Scheme to promote household savings. The real estate sector is one of the booming sectors in the recent years as housing prices are continuously raising every year, it is considered as a better investment. This sector is also benefitted from this budget by providing additional incentive to first time home buyers. However the budget has proposed a levy of one percent Tax Deduction at Source (TDS) on immovable properties except agricultural land to make property transaction transparent. The reduction in the securities transaction tax cheers the investors. And commodities transaction tax is raised for non -agri commodities.  The finance minister has strongly said Foreign Direct Investment is inevitable and foreign cash inflow is the need of the hour to finance the current account deficit. The finance minister has clearly distinguished between Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and Foreign Institutional Investment (FII). And the finance minister in his budget has made sure to boost foreign investor confidence and infrastructure investment by introducing new ports, industrial corridors and tax free bonds.

The overall budget is quite pragmatic given the tough situation but one has to know that by just juggling numbers here and there to show fiscal consolidation is not going to help. The finance minister in his speech has said “ I dare say I have provided sufficient funds to each ministries and departments consistent with the capacity to spend the funds” But the question that need to be asked in a country with huge corruption and black money slashed away is that how well the funds allocated are used and implemented. Introducing a regulatory authority to oversee that these funds are used efficiently and to the maximum for implementation and development of its programs will be better.  But it is really disappointing that the government has not done much to curtail inflation problem. The consumers especially the middle class are worst affected in this regard. The middle class has to shed out even more after this budget. Mobile phone will become expensive. They have to pay more to eat as the budget has imposed service tax on all air conditioned restaurants and moreover the city restaurants are on the move of revising their price lists with rising prices of vegetables and other food commodities. The budget has made it mandatory to buy set top boxes and at the same time has also increased the import duty making them costlier leaving the citizens with no choice. Cigarettes have become costlier which gets thumbs up as we can expect a positive show on the people’s health. SUVs become dearer as import duty and excise duty have been raised.  Since the allocation for fuel subsidy has been lowered, travelling becomes expensive with the rise in diesel prices. With little good reforms and failures on some front the budget has managed to balance short term goals and long term growth drivers. With now all that is estimated and over let’s just wait and see how the economy proceeds and tackle all those serious macro-economic problems that threaten India’s growth prospects. With just one month to go to start with the next financial year let us hope that the situation in global economy improves and the engine of India’s growth story starts with a positive note.