A pragmatic picture: On the Economic Survey 2024-25
Parliament’s Budget session has begun amid a significantly changed backdrop. India’s growth is seen faltering after four years of healthy post-pandemic growth, the stock markets are tumbling, the rupee is losing ground faster than expected, and the major drivers that have been spurring the economy — domestic demand and public sector capex — are sputtering, while private investments remain insipid. For context, the five years from 2019-20 to 2023-24 have seen government capex increase at a compounded annual growth rate of 16%, household investments by 12%, while corporate outlays were up only 6%, despite a steep tax rate cut for them. A slowdown in the well-moving economic levers is, thus, a cause for concern. That the new U.S. administration seems determined to upend global trade and taxat...