The strategy of the budget was to lay emphasis on agriculture and food economy reforms, enhance public and private investment in infrastructure and deepen structural reforms and regenerate industrial growth. However, the budget did not receive a favorable response from the market and unlike the previous year's budget, has been extensively criticized by all as being growth un-friendly says Indranil Pan, Associate Vice-President, Kotak Mahindra Capital Company Ltd., Mumbai.

In the words of the finance minister, the budget for 2002-03 is one that has attempted at consolidating, widening and deepening the reforms process on the basis of the comprehensive agenda for second generation economic reforms that was set out in the previous budget. Keeping this in mind, the strategy of the budget was to lay emphasis on agriculture and food economy reforms, enhance public and private investment in infrastructure and deepen structural reforms and regenerate industrial growth. However, the budget did not receive a favorable response from the market and unlike the previous year's budget, has been extensively criticized by all as being growth un-friendly. With respect to growth, the finance minister seemed to pin his hopes on a cyclical recovery in the economy in 2002-03 on the back of better agricultural production (therefore an increased rural demand) of the current fiscal year and a recovery in export growth concurrently with a recovery of the major economies of the world, specifically US. The budget numbers on tax collections assume a nominal GDP growth of around 11 percent during 2002-03. Factoring an inflation level in the region of 4-4.5 percent, the real GDP is expected to grow by 6.5-7.0 percent in 2002-03.

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