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Is it going to be an 'aam-aadmi' centric budget

As the day for announcing the Union Budget is approaching, there are speculations, expectations, apprehensions and hopes all around. In the pre-budget meeting with the party office-bearers, the union Finance Minister, Pranab Mukherjee was inundated with the party's wish-list as well. The demand was for an 'aam-aadmi' centric budget, focusing on four sectors – education, health, infrastructure, and agriculture.

The specifics included increasing the minimum support price (MSP) for crops like sugarcane, giving income-tax reliefs to salaried class, extending benefits to senior citizens and soft-loans for minorities, increasing diesel-subsidy for farmers and fishermen.

It is a welcome sign that infrastructure sector emerged as the first priority, but it is a little sad why nothing was discussed about reforms like disinvestments, amendments in SEZ bills, insurance bills and other finance sector reforms. Though, Finance Minster didn't disclose any specifics of the budget, looked convinced that India can grow at 6-7% in this fiscal. But I believe that putting social and economic reforms on the back-burner might be a big deterrent. ter!

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