Hindi English Translation || Editorial || Poll posture: On the 2024 Interim Budget

Poll posture: On the 2024 Interim Budget

Slowing growth and rising inequality must both be tackled head-on

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s sixth consecutive Budget speech was an election-eve, self-congratulatory (आत्म-बधाई) report card on the economic achievements engendered by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the two governments he has led since 2014. Echoing the Finance Ministry’s review of the economy’s performance, and stating that Mr. Modi had inherited a situation replete (भरा हुआ) with ‘enormous challenges’ when he assumed office, Ms. Sitharaman asserted that those were surmounted (काबू करना, जीतना) through ‘structural reforms, pro-people programmes and the creation of opportunities for employment and entrepreneurship’ (उद्यम). A reinvigorated economy had helped ensure that the fruits of development started reaching the people at scale, imbuing (To fill something or someone with a quality or feeling) them with a sense of purpose and hope, and translated into a bigger mandate five years ago, she averred. In a clear sign that the Bharatiya Janata Party-led regime is far more confident of returning to power this time around, Ms. Sitharaman eschewed (परहेज़ करना) any announcements that could be seen as targeting a particular constituency of voters. Instead, the focus was on talking up the commitment to ‘an inclusive and sustainable policy approach that had led to the attainment of a more comprehensive (व्यापक, विस्तृत) GDP of governance, development and performance’. A nonchalant observation that the government would detail a road map for attaining a ‘Viksit Bharat’ by 2047 in its full Budget in July, was premised on the certainty of winning a ‘resounding (ज़बर्दस्त, शानदार)’ electoral mandate.

The Budget numbers posit a continuing journey on the path of fiscal consolidation (दृढ़ीकरण), with the Revised Estimates (RE) pegging (An arrangement that fixes a price, currency, etc. at a particular level) the current year’s fiscal deficit at 5.8% of the GDP, a 10 basis points improvement from last February’s Budget Estimate (BE) of 5.9%. This, the Minister has achieved by pruning (छँटाई) effective capital expenditure by ₹1 lakh crore in the RE, a moderation in nominal (नाममात्र का) growth estimates notwithstanding (Despite the fact or thing mentioned). For 2024-25, she has projected a sharper consolidation and pegged the deficit at 5.1% by factoring in a 14% jump in revenue receipts on a BE basis, that is expected to help offset an 11% increase in estimated capital expenditure to ₹11.11 lakh crore. Ms. Sitharaman, who emphasised (ज़ोर, बल) a tripling in the capital spending outlays over the past four years that had had ‘a multiplier impact on growth and employment creation’, however, glossed (To provide an explanation for a word or phrase) over the fact that the budgeted increase in capital spending next year is set to be sharply lower than the 28% jump in the RE versus last fiscal’s actuals. At a time when official estimates for private consumption spending show growth at its lowest ebb since the pandemic, the Budget’s stress on fiscal prudence (विवेकी, सावधानी) does carry the risk of undermining (कमज़ोर कर देना) economic momentum (गति, जोर). The bigger challenge is the more worrying possibility of rising inequality.

Courtesy: The Hindu

Important Word List With Meaning

1.Self-congratulatory (noun)

Hindi Meaning - आत्म-बधाई
English Meaning - Praising yourself or saying how well you have done something.

2.Replete (adjective)

Hindi Meaning - भरा हुआ
English Meaning - Well supplied.

3.Surmounted (verb)

Hindi Meaning - काबू करना, जीतना
English Meaning - To deal successfully with a difficulty or problem.

4.Entrepreneurship (noun)

Hindi Meaning - उद्यम
English Meaning - Skill in starting new businesses, especially when this involves seeing new opportunities.

5.Eschewed (verb)

Hindi Meaning - परहेज़ करना
English Meaning - To avoid something intentionally, or to give something up.

6.Comprehensive (adjective)

Hindi Meaning - व्यापक, विस्तृत
English Meaning - Complete and including everything that is necessary.

7.Resounding (adjective)

Hindi Meaning - ज़बर्दस्त, शानदार
English Meaning - Very great; complete.

8.Pruning (noun)

Hindi Meaning - छँटाई
English Meaning - The activity of reducing the number or amount of something.

9.Nominal (adjective)

Hindi Meaning - नाममात्र का
English Meaning - In name or thought but not in fact or not as things really are.

10.Consolidation (noun)

Hindi Meaning - दृढ़ीकरण
English Meaning - The process of becoming or being made stronger and more certain.

11.Emphasised (noun)

Hindi Meaning - ज़ोर, बल
English Meaning - To show that something is very important or worth giving attention to.

12.Prudence (noun)

Hindi Meaning - विवेकी, सावधानी
English Meaning - Behaviour that is careful and avoids risks.

13.Undermining (verb)

Hindi Meaning - कमज़ोर कर देना
English Meaning - To make someone less confident, less powerful, or less likely to succeed, or to make something weaker, often gradually.

14.Momentum (noun)

Hindi Meaning - गति, जोर
English Meaning - The quality that keeps an event developing or making progress after it has started.

15.Imbuing (noun)

English Meaning - To fill something or someone with a quality or feeling.

16.Pegging (noun)

English Meaning - An arrangement that fixes a price, currency, etc. at a particular level.

17.Notwithstanding (noun)

English Meaning - Despite the fact or thing mentioned.

18.Glossed (noun)

English Meaning - To provide an explanation for a word or phrase.