To design economic policies to only control inflation or growth by adjusting interest or money levels has not proved to be effective. Design the policies to generate more jobs and keep the currency value stable, the rest will derive effectively from that. It must be kept in mind that the largest employment / job generator is the small entrepreneur/ business sector and hence, the economic policies of the Government must be designed to encourage this sector, as a corollary, the other Government policies should be such as to encourage this sector and not stifle it by over regulation.

A worldwide Gallup survey found that even poor people, who live on less than US $ Two a day, worry more about jobs than food or medicine. Today what the whole world wants is a ‘good job’ and that is what leaders should make their number one priority.

Given a ‘good job’ people can then seek to meet their other needs more effectively and confidently and with dignity.

Education must be designed so as to result in a good job, even for 7^th or 8^th class dropouts who should have by then been encouraged to attain the required vocational or craft or artisan skills and be certified as appropriate.

Laws and Budgets should also, be designed to encourage job creation and not just be populist for short term benefits. Self-employment/ Entrepreneurship can also, be considered a good job, especially as it also, serves to employ others.

A ‘Dream Budget’ cannot only be an exercise in ‘Accounting’, or an attempt to balance things taking a little from here and a little from there. It has to arise from a transformational or paradigm shift in understanding that the Budget is mainly a policy statement aimed at bringing about broad-based general prosperity for all (Rural and Urban) across the Country and only next, a statement of projected revenues and expenditures.

A clear statement of ‘Aim’ – specifying the general directive principles and laying out the road map to be implemented in phases over the next 3 years to bring about prosperity to all, including the ‘Aam Admi’, will avoid controversy and misconceptions about policy. This will provide the stability and consistency required.

In the history of our Country, there has been only one ‘Dream’ Budget, that was in 1991 when the then Prime Minister, Shri P.V. Narasimha Rao, made it into the history books as a Leader who visualized what needed to be done to start India on the path of once again becoming the ‘Sone Ka Chidiya’ and called up on Dr. Manmohan Singh, as his Finance Minister and with Dr. Montek Singh Ahluwalia in the Planning Commission, to lay down the policies to implement his vision. It is unfortunate that the compulsions of coalition politics prevented him from expanding thereon.

It is also, unfortunate that after that, even though many of the same protagonists came again on stage and held the necessary positions, they were never again able to boost prosperity at similar scales. Perhaps Politics, Circumstances and their Party leaders did not permit them, or perhaps they were not bold enough to stand up for their vision. Each of their Budgets in these past few years were reasonable Budgets, exercises in wary politics, but not “Dream’ budgets which would galvanize the Nation’s growth.

Today we have a Prime Minister who has a vision for overall betterment and development – ‘Sab Ka Saath, Sab Ka Vikas’, from a Party led by those who hold a firm intention to better the lot of the ‘Aam Admi’, and with really comfortable Political strength.

We look to our Leaders to act now because if not now – then when? There will never be a better time as ‘The Better is always the Enemy of the Good’ – Today is a good time! The Interim Budget of 2019 was a good illustration of what a Budget should be. It addressed the concerns of almost all sections of the people and laid out the path for a better and more comprehensive way to ‘go ahead’, in the next proper budget. Unfortunately, the Budget of July 2019 was a hasty and disappointing one. The WUHAN/COVID Pandemic has made the budget of 2020 and 2021 only an exercise in making unkept promises, and that of 2022, 2023, and 2024 only slightly better.

It is now once again the right time to use the Budget to bring about another major boost to entrepreneurship and prosperity across the Country, especially in view of the Demographic profile of the Country that projects an ever-increasing number of young employment seekers in the near future.

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