The Finance Minister has used the positive macroeconomic profile of the country to his advantage while striking a balance between expanding the spend on focus areas and garnering the requisite resource base. India is well placed to shift gears towards growth with low consumer inflation, comfortable current account deficit and a controlled fiscal deficit.

Infra spending is one of the key elements of India’s investment story, and Budget 17-18 did well to retain the focus on the sector with a host of positive announcements. In transportation infrastructure, higher capex is proposed in railways to add new lines, redevelop stations and improve safety. The new metro rail policy is expected to harness the potential that metros hold in improving the country’s transport infra. Road project awards and execution could see a pick-up with the availability of a higher corpus of about ₹650 billion. PPP in airport O&M could improve the efficiency of the sector, with players not requiring to invest huge sums of capital upfront.

Going digital continued to be a distinct theme in the Budget. The government has allotted ₹100 billion for the Bharat Net project, which aims to create seamless yet affordable broadband connectivity by laying optical fibre cables throughout the country. Last mile connectivity to citizens is proposed to be provided by creating Wi-Fi hotspots. The vision of Digital India could provide the push for new-age areas like smartcities.

On the energy front, the government has continued the initiative of conserving crude oil by promoting import of LNG through custom duty reduction. Thrust to solar power with a plan to add 20 GW and achieving 100 per cent electrification in rural areas augurs well.

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