The budget proposals have raised serious concerns for business sector. Though revenue generation has been emphasized, the budget has also put in place the right dose of reform measures to carry out the second generation of reforms.

Yashwant Sinha presented the Union Budget 2002-03 at a critical time when the global economy lead by US is showing signs of recovery. On the other hand, India is confronting political problems following the controversy over temple construction. On an equal footing, the economy has witnessed a steady decline in growth rates both in agriculture and industrial sectors. Despite these odds, the finance minister tried to strike a delicate balance between growth and reforms.

While last year's budget tried to consolidate on the reforms initiatives, global slowdown and domestic scams have hindered the process and made the dream budget turn soar for the finance minister. This time around when the finance minister was forced to mark his prioritiesreviving the sagging economy along with spearheading the second-generation reformshis abilities to talk less and deliver more were under pressure. While the agenda for the budget has not changed much from that of last year in terms of fiscal deficits, in involving the states to carry on the second phase of the reforms and reducing the bureaucratic levels, a lot more was needed from the finance minister to address and deliver. Whether the finance minister has succeeded in addressing the key micro and macroeconomic variables to propel growth forms the first part of the post-budget analysis, and what is that the budget had talked about the reforms and the steps taken in that direction forms the next part of the analysis.

Budget 2003 : Consolidating reforms, budget, minister, finance, economy, markets, agenda, agriculture, fiscal, global, construction, analysis, disinvestment, Finance, bottlenecks, Budget, bullish, bureaucratic, industrial, macroeconomic, Management, Chidambaram, promoting, recovery, sensex, spearheading, stimulate.