This year’s budget included several welcome steps such as higher infrastructure funding and a greater allocation to healthcare. It also included newer ways to raise resources, such as the use of asset monetisation. The budget’s drawbacks included higher import duties and new cesses on agriculture and infrastructure. Pranay Kotashtane, Anupam Manur, and Sarthak Pradhan discuss what the budget got right as well as some of the opportunities it missed in a time when the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted both revenues and expenditures.
