Central Hall | 'A Budget Full of Trickery': Kapil Sibal Asks 3 Economists How to Make Sense of it

Ten years since Narendra Modi came to power, the economy has undergone no significant improvement. After 2016, the decision of demonetisation destroyed the MSME sector. In 2019, the government tried to give benefits to the corporate sector by reducing tax rates. The corporate sector did not deliver, they just cleaned up their balance sheets. The agriculture sector is stuttering. 

The Narendra Modi government has now got a fillip in the form of Rs 2.1 lakh crores of dividends from the Reserve Bank of India. 

Sibal is joined by three experts who try to answer what's good and bad about the budget. One of these is more difficult to answer than the other. 

Jayati Ghosh has taught for 35 years at JNU and has a PhD in economics from Cambridge University. She has written about globalisation, international trade, macroeconomic politics and more. She is consulted by the UNDP and ILO. 

Arun Kumar is part-physicist (with a degree from Princeton) and part-economist. He has done enormous work in developmental economics and written extensively on black economics.

Himanshu is also a JNU developmental economist. He has been advising the government in several capacities.


Join The Wire's Youtube Membership and get exclusive content, member-only emojis, live interaction with The Wire's founders, editors and reporters and much more. Memberships to The Wire Crew start at Rs 89/month.    / @thewirenews