Union budgets never please all. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's first comprehensive budget isn't an exception, though it talks of making the impossible possible before the BJP government goes to the next Lok Sabha polls in 2024, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi as the harbinger of hope for a country of aspirations. The budget tries to engage individuals working in organised and unorganised manner, and various sectors that contribute to the country's economic growth, but also raises many questions.

India's growth is arrested, say experts, even as the government thinks otherwise. The widening gap between revenue income and expenditure is known and documented. The fiscal deficit isn't expected to recover any faster. The worrisome drop in revenue receipts due to the GST regime, the debts and expenditure that don't reflect in the budget, are expected to be recovered through disinvestment of government institutes. But considering the history of disinvestment bids, experts don't expect the government to make up for the losses anytime soon.