Budget 2015 a fine balancing at between growth & fiscal discipline: Chanda Kochhar, ICICI Bank

In a chat with ET Now, Chanda Kochhar, MD & CEO, ICICI Bank, talks about the Union Budget 2015. Excerpts:

ET Now: Experts have given a thumbs-up to Budget 2015; markets too believe it is a good budget. What is your assessment?

Chanda Kochhar: It is actually a very good budget. Budget 2015 is extremely finely balanced between growth, inclusiveness and fiscal discipline.

It's definitely pro-growth. At the same time, it takes into account fiscal prudence as well as inclusiveness too.

ET Now: Talking of infrastructure, do you believe enough has been done by way of Rs 70,000 crore additional expenditure? Are you happy with this allocation?

Chanda Kochhar: I would look at not just the allocation, but the entire direction that has been set for infrastructure investment. First off all, it's a very important thing to say that let us kick-start investment through public sector units. That is a indeed an extremely good beginning. It is a very pragmatic way of looking at things.

Increasing the devolution towards the states is a good thing too. Above all, there are a lot of enabling things like the entire plug-and-play model and the relook at the PPP model. Then of course there is dispute resolution and the like.

So, the stage has been set for a much bigger growth in infrastructure.