Delhi: March 3, 2011: The Union Budget for India was proposed on the 28th of February, 2011 by our Finance Minister Mr. Pranab Mukherjee. The opinions of people across India were divided and this was mirrored at the Delhi School of Management (DSM), Delhi Technological University too. Delhi School of Management, DTU thus, decided to rest the case once and for all by organizing a Panel Discussion “Budgetonomics: 2011” on the budget on 3rd March 2011, with some of the very best in the educational as well as the corporate sector.
The event was an initiative under the guidance of Prof. P.B. Sharma (Honorable Vice Chancellor, DTU), Prof. Moin Uddin (Honorable Pro V.C., DTU) and Prof. S.K. Garg (Head, DSM, DTU). These are the torch bearers of DTU. In addition to these eminent personalities, an elite group of panelists comprising of Mr. Sharat Jain, CFO, Modi Group of companies, Dr.N.K.Gupta, Associate Professor. Ramjas College and Mr. Himanshu Shekhar, Under Secretary, GOI, had a comprehensive discussion on the various policy initiatives on the budget. The session was moderated by Prof. Nand Kumar, Asst. Prof. (Economics) DTU. The discussion was divided into two parts by the moderator, Mr. Nand Kumar. Session One comprised of each panelist giving his brief opinion about the Budget. Session Two was an interactive session among the panelists on the various policy initiatives in the budget followed by interaction from the audience. In session one there were various opinions expressed about the budget but the overall idea was that it was a balanced budget aimed towards improving growth in these times of high inflation and growing corruption.
Dr. Gupta while speaking on the budget in general and on DTC and GST in particular was of the opinion that DTC which include pension, insurance and banking will be critical for reform. Mr. Sharat Jain was of the opinion that the Government has addressed the issue of Black Money through five point program, including revised treaties to secure information from tax havens. But nothing has been done to book the tax offenders.
After talking in detail abut the Union Budget, Mr. Himanshu had the view that the challenges before the Govt. and RBI has been to support the growth process without compromising on price stability. On the issue of tackling the inflation, he underlined the need to revive private investment, fiscal consolidation, and supply side responses from the farm sector to improve the food productivity.
The moderator, Mr. Nand kumar concluded with saying that curbing inflation and boosting growth itself is a delicate balancing act. Finance Minister has done fairly well in this task. By not rolling back of excise duty cuts that were introduced in the wake of economic slowdown in 2008, he has created a positive sentiment. Market too responded positively to raising investment limits for FIIs in corporate infrastructure bond and permitting them to invest in mutual fund.
The two sessions were followed by an interactive session between the students and the panelists. Various questions were posed by the students on topics like the inflation, Direct Tax Code, Black Money and many more. BUDGETONOMICS 2011 was finally brought to a close after the felicitation of the honourable guests with the pledge that it would be back next year, bigger and better and with a new perspective on next years eagerly anticipated budget. |
