Winners and Losers in India’s Budget Aiming to Bolster Growth

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government laid out India’s budget for the financial year starting April 1, months after a devastating second Covid-19 wave that crippled small businesses and deepened the country’s already vast inequalities.

With five states, including the politically significant Uttar Pradesh, heading to the polls later this month, there were expectations that the budget would address issues of high unemployment. The state elections will be a mid-term assessment of Modi’s popularity ahead of national elections in 2024.

Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman Tuesday presented a budget that calls for a bigger spend to fire up growth ...