Sir thank you for allowing me to speak I speak in support of this Budget As you know this is the

NDA Government's first full year Budget And it is my opinion that this Budget is exactly what the

doctor has ordered The Government has been operating in the backdrop of years of profligacy

and mal-governance which have made things even more challenging Over the last few years the

Government has significantly reduced its investment and spending capacity The years of scams

and corruption have caused even the bravest of investors running for the exit doors So my

colleagues were talking at length about the need to spend more I think I must bring it to your

attention that the first rule of prudent living is to spend within your means The Government is

spending what it can and it cannot spend more because of the fiscal mess it has inherited And glib

talk about fiscal deficit financing is all very good But it ignores the very fact that it creates serious

economic distortions expensive to fix and leaves debt behind for the future generations to repay

So the deficit financing is fine in an excel spreadsheet But in the real world it is moving the liability

to future generations Over the last nine months the economy has slowly and steadily been

brought back from the precipice that the UPA left it in This Budget therefore is a catalyst and I

believe a first step to a 10 per cent growth economy About this I have no doubts It addresses the

twin task of fiscal consolidation and expenditure rationalization of the Government And secondly
and most importantly it addresses the main task of reviving and restarting a deep and sustainable

investment cycle I can speak a lot about these issues I can speak about Rs 3 lac crores in the recent

auctions But by talking about three specific issues I want to address head on the propaganda in

some quarters that this Budget does not address the poor Let us talk about delivering benefits to

the poor This Budget specifically talks about restructuring How benefits are delivered to the poor

using the triumvirate of Jan Dhan Yojana aadhar and mobile This is a very very important reform

aimed at benefiting only the poor It puts money directly in the hands of those that deserve

Sir it removes corruption leakage and middle men from the Welfare State model something that

has been the curse of all Government spending programmes for several decades This is a

significant and real benefit for the poor rather than simply announcing big numbers and grandiose

schemes that go nowhere The second aspect of the Budget I wish to highlight is that of the Mudra

Bank an initiative that is transformational because it takes over 10 crores and reportedly up to 26

crore people in small and self employed activities and gives them access to the capital for the first

time since Independence Sir this informal sector is invisible to the financial sector but visible to

all The informal sector provides 80 per cent jobs in the non agricultural sector It accounts for 50

per cent of our GDP and it is disgraceful that all these years they were neither addressed by policy
action nor by the banking system Only 4 per cent of this informal sector have access to organized

credit and loans above Rs 50000 are almost impossible forcing them into the hands of

moneylenders Sir formalizing the informal sector which is the objective of this Budget targets a

large number of Indians at the bottom of the economic pyramid and empowers them I predict

that this Mudra initiative if executed well can add 15 to 20 per cent to our growth rates Sir this is

a good example of how the Government policy can encourage enterprise and entrepreneurship

even at the bottom of the economic pyramid The third point is the architecture of social security

which is consisting of insurance and pensioning for the poor For a country like ours almost a third

of our population lives in destitution and poverty a social security net is a must This Budget builds

on the success of your social security system Sir permanent solutions like this are far more real

and transformational for the poor than slogans and rhetoric Sir this Government's approach to

poverty poor and the informal sector is fresh and new These will ensure permanent changes to

the lives of the poor over time To those in the Opposition who see the poor of India as simply

another fancily named spending programme this new approach of the Government will seems

difficult to understand It was simply because the ideas in this Budget are different