Episode 9: Budget 2020-21: A Scorecard

Professors Arvind Panagariya and Pravin Krishna dissect the positives and negatives in the first budget of the new decade. Among the positive features, they note the government's continued commitment to fiscal consolidation, launch of the reform to simplify the personal income tax system and end the exemption raj, a large disinvestment program including privatization of many public sector enterprises, and the development of five key ancient archeological sites. On the negative side, they discuss the likely damage to the economy from extensive roll back of trade liberalization. They argue that while continued reforms in the domestic arena will allow India to return to 7 to 8% growth in two years' time, the turn to import substitution and protection will deny it double-digit growth.