FM has announced a Budget which is not aggressive at all. There are no big ticket reforms. The contribution of manufacturing sector to GDP is targeted to increase form 16 % to 25 % over the next 10 years which is an underestimated target. He has however, not rolled back any stimulus measures and this augurs well for maintaining the growth momentum in local manufacturing output and customer demand.

 Various “300 Crore Schemes” for agricultural development and focus on improvement in food handling and storage capacity should ensure continued growth of 5 % plus in this sector and hopefully remove supply chain constraints, leading to much needed relief in food inflation.

 A thrust on reducing Transaction Costs for exports and simplifying import procedures by introducing self assessment for payment of custom duties are welcome measures but much more needs to be done in this direction.

 For the IT Hardware industry, FY 1011-12 should see a god growth in demand on account of several projects targeted during the year such as IT  infrastructure for CGST to be managed by NSDL, broadband connectivity to 2.5 lakh panchayats, connectivity on optical fibre backbone of 1500 Institutes under the National Knowledge Network , aggressive roll-out of UID Aadhar numbers, new Central Processing Centres of CBDT at Manesar, Pune & Kolkata, release of funds for 31 state projects for computerization of sales tax administration, thrust on e-stamping facility in more states, etc.

 To increase PC penetration and bridge the digital divide, he could have announced a concessional interest rate and a priority landing scheme by banks for purchase of PCs in semi-urban and rural households.

 For the mobile phones sector, it is heartening that the duty benefits have been extended on components, etc. for another year and some more items have been added. The target to take banking facility to 73,000 villages with less than 2,000 people by March, 2012 should see a further boost in demand for mobile services and phones offering banking facilities.