By Mohit Malhotra
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s shortest Budget ever may not have met the general expectations of being a short-term consumption booster, but it surely has all the right ingredients for becoming an impactful long-term growth-oriented move.
With an unexpected higher thrust on capital investment, putting more money in the pockets of farmers, continued focus on infrastructure development and encouraging Atmanirbharta, it takes the much-needed investment route to drive long-term economic growth for the country.
At a time of unprecedented economic stress when the government had little headroom for manoeuvre, the finance minister has rightly chosen to focus on higher capital expenditure and investments to pump up the economy. It is also heartening to see the government acknowledge the heavy toll that Covid pandemic has had on mental health of individuals.
The announcement of the national tele-mental health programme for mental health counselling is a welcome move and I am confident that this programme would bring about more open conversations and acceptance about matters related to mental health. At Dabur, we have been organising special webinars with renowned medical practitioners to address matters like how the mind functions, why do we suffer, what is mindfulness, how to be balanced, being happy and stress free. We have also launched a company-wide Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) to help employees gain access to expert counsellors to support their mental and emotional wellness needs, at all times. We see such initiatives now being commonplace across organisations.
While there may not be any big reliefs for the salaried and middle class in India by way of tax cuts, the absence of any big negatives is a big positive in itself. The introduction of a regulated Digital Rupee is also a forward-looking move.
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Around Rs 2.37 lakh crore worth of MSP direct payments to wheat and paddy farmers, promoting chemical-free natural farming, and the thrust on financial inclusion by bringing the entire 1.5 lakh post offices into the core banking system are other big positives, particularly for rural India. The higher MSP allocation would go a long way in helping drive consumption of FMCG products in the hinterland.
This would be highly beneficial for companies with a strong rural footprint and would help drive growth for the consumer products industry. Dabur has been investing ahead of the curve in strengthening its rural footprint, which today covers over 85,000 villages.
The financial support being provided to farmers to take up agro-forestry is also a step in the right direction, and will not just protect but also propagate our country’s biodiversity. Dabur, as the pioneer in Ayurvedic products, has already taken the lead in preserving and growing our herbal wealth. Our biodiversity initiatives involve farmers, tribal and forest-based communities across the country, taking them along in this mission to not just arrest the decline in the population of medicinal herbs but also increase their numbers by promoting sustainable cultivation.
Overall, I would call it a growth-oriented Budget that is both inclusive and progressive, and lays down the blueprint for creating an enabling framework that would promote an Atmanirbhar Bharat.
The writer is CEO, Dabur. Views are personal.
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