00:00The government has delivered a budget that sharpens Prime Minister Modi's strategy of
00:04shielding the economy from U.S. tariffs while maintaining fiscal restraint.
00:12The budget focuses on reducing the fiscal deficit and inflation control. The budget
00:19also harmonizes high capital expenditure and high growth. This budget reinforces India's global role.
00:30Let's bring in Bloomberg's Asia Pacific reporter Swati Pandey for more on this. So Swati,
00:34what were the key takeaways from the budget?
00:38This budget was really highly anticipated, especially after big spending cuts that were
00:46announced last year and the simplification of Byzantine labor laws. However, the government
00:54steered clear of making any big ticket spending in this one. There were some announcements on
01:01infrastructure spending. There were some announcements to help to help India's strategic
01:08minerals industry to boost semiconductor manufacturing. The when finance minister Nirmala Seetaraman
01:19started her speech, she said it would it was going to be a youth oriented budget. But there are still
01:27question marks around whether the budget can really drop up economic growth and and boost employment,
01:38especially for young people in India. So amid those questions, where does India
01:47stand on ways in which to buffer the Indian economy from global risk and then balancing that against the
01:55backdrop of advancing some of these structural reforms, including manufacturing for the country?
02:00Yes. So India's economy has is really reeling from U.S. tariffs, which is 50 percent. And the government
02:15has announced plans, including in this budget, there have been proposals to boost small and medium
02:21businesses. There are proposals for textiles and leather industries, which are very highly impacted by these
02:30tariffs. So that is the primary plan, right, where they are trying to provide sobs to the industries that are very
02:37highly affected exporters. There is a bit of this self-reliance thing as well, where the government wants India to have its
02:47own semiconductor manufacturing, where where they have relaxed some tax on import of equipment for processing of
02:56rare earth magnets. So they are kind of like trying to do those type of stuff, which is their primary plan. But then there is a
03:06secondary plan where they are trying to build trade ties and free trade agreements with other countries. So last week there was the EU, the
03:15trade agreement with the European Union. And last year, India did trade agreement with the UK and with New Zealand. And there are going to be many more that will come.
03:26And there are going to be many more that will come likely in the coming months.
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