The Demo Site

Expectations are running high for the Budget 2010 to do many things -- maintain growth, provide employment, reduce fiscal deficit, take steps to shift to the new Direct Taxes Code, take measures to implement Goods and Services Tax, reduce inflation and increase revenue for the government.

All this has to be done with the idea of being popular enough to have voters on the government's side. It's a tall order and Finance Minster Pranab Mukherjee has a job that very few will envy.

Major issues to tackle: Reducing the deficit

Although there are several problems to be addressed, the major issues that the finance minister will need to tackle in the short term are the problems of reducing the deficit and increasing the revenues for the government.

Reducing the deficit that is running wild is not an easy job. If we had had the same deficit during the year 2000, the World Bank (if not the whole world) would have been up at arms against the Indian government. But the global financial meltdown has made governments to take the task of reviving the economies on their shoulders and today almost every government in the world is running huge deficits that are hardly making headlines.

However, governments are aware -- no one more so than the Indian finance minister -- that this is not sustainable.

Mukherjee's push to have the 3G spectrum auctioned before March 2010 showcases the urgency to bridge the deficit.