On Friday, 26 February, 2010, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee presented the budget for India for the upcoming financial year, and while there was a lot of optimism in his tone as far as the country's growth went, people were more interested to know if there have been any steps taken to curb the rapidly rising prices and if there are any chances that the budget deficit would be pulled down.

One of the positive things that emerged while introduction of the budget was Mr. Mukherjee's promise that the Government would work towards cutting its budget deficit over the coming three financial years by trying to boost revenues. The FM said that the Government is aiming to pull down the deficit to 5.5% of the total GDP during the next fiscal year, which is also in-line with the estimate put forward by economists.

Also, substantial changes have been made to both direct and indirect taxes, with the Minister pruning them to ensure that the income and corporate taxes are lowered. This will be another delightful news for the population of the country.

It seems that everything is there in 2010-11 budget - a promise to pull down deficit, tax reliefs, taxing of luxuries and trying to keep prices of common items as low as possible. So is this what one would call a poor man's budget? Is India headed in the right direction with its finances now, as it tries to recovery from recession? Although it is true that recession never managed to hit India that bad to begin with, and even officials and authorities overseas agree that the country has managed to show tremendous resilience during the tough times.

For now, the budget seems to be just about satisfactory, and let's hope that some, if not all, the promises will be kept over the year.

"With recovery taking root, there is a need to review public spending, mobilize resources and gear them towards building the productivity of the economy", Mr. Mukherjee said in his budget speech. We certainly hope this will happen!