It's time for some hard talk and reforms, say B-school students

NEW DELHI: When Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee presents his Budget in Parliament on Friday morning, India Inc’s future managers and executives in B-school campuses will be keenly watching what he has to offer on key concerns like rising food prices and stimulus packages.

For some of them, the FM’s biggest challenge would be to take the Indian economy towards fiscal consolidation, while ensuring the economy does not deviate from the path of recovery. In sum, it’s a test of whether the government can take the hard road.

Gaurav Anand (24), who is doing his MBA from MDI, Gurgaon, says this year, the finance minister has the opportunity to presenting a leg-acy budget. Unlike previous years, there are no major elections around the corner, no coalition partners threatening to topple him and no pressure to hold him back from implementing structural reforms. “This budget will be seen by investors as a litmus test of the government’s intent to implement reforms and take some hard decisions, considering India’s current fiscal deficit,” he says.

Says Charanyan Iyengar, a first year PGP student at IIM Kozhikode feels the government might cut back on some stimuli, with the economy slowly coming back on track.

Inflation is also top of the mind for students this time round. Says Iyengar, “Although the government’s agenda will be to control inflation, unless it targets staples, the prices may not come down,” he says.

Students are also expecting reforms in areas such as taxes, education, healthcare and disinvestment. While some students expect that tax holidays for research and development in biotech and pharmaceuticals, others say the government should focus on improving efficiencies in the public distribution system.

Infrastructure is another crucial area for these aspiring managers. “The finance minister will need to focus on infrastructure and education, which will lay the foundation for long-term growth and development,” says Anand.