Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee involved Goddess Lakshmi and Lord Indra in his budget message. But more than the rain god, he should have chanted one more name: "Jai bolo spectrum maharaj ki". It was 3G spectrum which helped Pranab Mukherjee to desist from attempting to raise resources from higher taxation. In fact, this also allowed tax exemption limit to raise from 1.6L to 1.8L. This helped to buoy the stock market which would have otherwise tanked given poor sentiments before the budget.
The bonanza from the 3G spectrum sales has not only enabled Pranab keep his promise of lowering the rates, more importantly buttress his image as a good economic administrator.
Otherwise, of course the budget really does not have anything major. Those who listened to the speech of TV would have noticed that the energy in the voice was missing. The expectations from the budget were more that what it was presented. Pranab Mukherjee started the budget with a long speech on future projects and developments with major focus on states like West Bengal, Tamil, Kerala. Anyone could make from the speech that primary focus was on 2014 elections. A lot of being talked to improve the agriculture/firm conditions in India but nothing has done so far. The green revolution concept which should be implemented ages ago was discussed in this budget 2011.
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