Industry & Economy
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Budget
While bosses fail to see the big idea, bourses take off
Shyam G. Menon
Mumbai
,
Feb. 28
BLAME it on the media, but the increasingly clear thing about the Budget is that things get clearer only the day after.
For a long while at the city's Taj Mahal Hotel, corporate chiefs gathered for the Budget viewing session appeared hard pressed to make a headline out of a document seemingly bereft of startling vision.
There was expectation of Mr Chidambaram tabling an exciting document because the annual trend had become so and he hadn't had the chance to do something spectacular last year.
"Well, we were all let to believe I guess, from his statement last year. He didn't have enough time last year, so with more time this year he would have been better prepared to address some of the intricacies of the Budget," the chairman of an investment fund said soon after the telecast, which appeared sunk like a stone.
He was among those disappointed with Mr Chidambaram's proposals. It seemed a view shared by several, at least in those initial hours after telecast, most comments laced with a sense of disbelief over the Budget's departure from big-bang submissions. Where was that one point which could add song to a balance sheet?
Then, sometime in the late afternoon that veritable moulder of economic opinion, the Sensex, started firing on all cylinders. It was an irony, companies yet to see a big idea in the Budget and a bourse happily taking its daily madness to a new peak.
"May be, all Finance Ministers need some tips from Bollywood on how to package the statement, on how to package the big idea," said Mr Anand Mahindra, Vice-Chairman & Managing Director, Mahindra & Mahindra. "To me, the whole Bharat Nirman issue is the big picture," he said, pointing to how infrastructure was the prime differentiator in the India-China comparison.
"In a sense, the government has given a slogan for it,'' Mr Mahindra said.
But quite probably the light landing of Mr Chidambaram's big picture had much to do with the Budget's evolution in a decontrolled economy. Like the rains, the Budget too was losing its centrality. You feel it best in the media, which makes a habit of prioritising things everyday.
On Monday, at the Taj, they were all flogging a tired horse.
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