Jaswant Singh keeps up the tokenism
breaking with tradition, Union finance minister Jaswant Singh chose not to conform to the two-part format while delivering his maiden budget speech on February 28. But there was no departure from practice in this year's Union budget as it was at the end of the day another populist document. No sign of long-term planning or any strategy beyond the coming fiscal.
The welcome provisions were few and far between (see box: The right move). Singh did list out the government's