Best of the Week | A Union Budget special

Dear reader,

This week was the most important week for any business and finance publication: it was the Union Budget week.

But it's not just one day. In the newsroom, we prepare for the day weeks in advance. We redesign the entire structure of the newspaper, with a fresh layout and other cosmetic changes. We also are ready with new charts and some contributors. This year, we also curated a pre-budget special, which I wrote about in last week's newsletter.

This year, I learnt two important things while covering the Budget:

1. “But still, I feel like she could have done more,” is a great response for any discussion around the Budget
2. Everyone in India considers themselves middle class — even if they're driving a Jaguar

Jokes apart, the jury on the Budget is still out. Everyone's expectations from this Budget were different. That's why our edition on July 24 featured a first-time voter on every page, and listed out their expectations from the Budget. The preparation for that also began a couple of months ago.

In case you missed out on our coverage of the Union Budget, here are some choice pieces for you:

💼 If you haven't had the time to go through the Budget, Vivek Kaul writes a succinct 8-point primer on the Budget. It will help you understand the basics of what the finance minister talked about.

📊 If you're a visual learner, our partners at HowIndiaLives.com explain the essential numbers of the Budget in 18 interactive charts—from the tax collections to welfare spending and railways. They explain why every data set is important, and highlight a key statistic as well.

✍️ However, for those with some more time to spare, I'd urge you to read N. Madhavan's longer, more detailed story we published a day later. It covers the ins and outs and is much more of an analysis that explains the implications of the Union Budget.

💰 Perhaps unsurprisingly, Bihar and Andhra Pradesh got special sops from this year's Budget. They get the benefits of being the “the good allies”, as Dhirendra Kumar writes. He outlines the benefits worth ₹47,000 crore for Bihar and ₹15,000 crore for AP. Nitish Kumar and N. Chandrababu Naidu cash in after supporting the coalition government, and their states receive huge financial boosts because of it.

👎 Puja Mehra penned a critical essay of this year's Budget. She was sceptical of the Income Tax review ordered by finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman. Moreover, any long-term policy changes to structurally improve the economic disposition of India seem to have been long forgotten, she writes. This Budget, according to Puja, was indicative of a government in drift.

You can read the rest of our Union Budget coverage in this collection of stories here.

👔 The Budget had provisions for providing internships for India's top 500 companies. This scheme is supposed to support 10 million interns through India Inc. over the next five years. Devina Sengupta answers an important question: is this scale viable? Industry veterans don't think so. The government has set aside ₹2 trillion for the initiative to further formalise and improve the job prospects of India's youth, but this might find few takers.

🤑 One of the more controversial aspects of this year's Budget was a setback to real estate investors. A higher long-term gains tax without the benefit of indexation could really increase someone's tax liability. Shipra Singh calculates that in some instances your taxes might rocket by 1,000%! Short-term real estate investors (do those exist?) might see benefits, but those investing for more than a year definitely face higher liabilities.

🧮 A day before the Budget, the government released the Economic Survey. It's a treasure trove of important numbers that tell you the current direction of India's economy. The government, in its pursuit of a $5 trillion economy (although you don't hear much about that anymore) needs to create jobs and kickstart private capital expenditure. HowIndiaLives.com explains the pivotal numbers and their implications for the Indian economy in the long run.

🪥 Patanjali has essentially taken over the ayurveda segment. It wants to do the same for the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) segment too. It's starting with a basic necessity for most: toothpaste. Patanjali's food and FMCG business has stagnated over the last three years, writes Devika Singh. She writes about the history of the Ramdev-led business, and its ambitions that will have it competing with HUL, Colgate, and Nestle. 

🥇 By the time this newsletter reaches your inbox, the Olympics would have kicked off. This year's sporting spectacle is occuring in Paris, France. Today's Mint Lounge edition features a set of stories on the games, and I recommend you pick up a copy. As a Shah Rukh Khan and Chak De India fan, my favourite story is the one on the Indian men's hockey team's pursuit of gold. Rudraneil Sengupta takes a deep dive into the team, their chances, and the history behind how they got here. If you're a fan of sports, you'll relish this piece.

That's all for this week. I hope you all have a pleasant weekend!

If you have any thoughts, ideas, or feedback, please feel free to write to me (shashwat.mohanty@htdigital.in) or reply to this mail. We are a constantly evolving news product, so any input is much appreciated!

Best,

Shashwat Mohanty

Assistant Editor

Subscriber Experience Team