Out of all the things that this Union Budget has talked about, whether it's increasing the slabs for personal income tax that helps the middle classes, or reducing customs and excise duties to enhance consumption, or unprecedented increases in financial allocation to education, health and skill development, the one thing that has stood out and captured the imagination and attention of people all across the country has been the Rs 60,000-crore farm loan waiver for small farmers. In fact, the loan waiver has become the flagship item of this Budget, and I think this happened for good reason. Consider the current state of the country. We live in an India that has recorded an average growth rate of more than 8.5% per annum for the last half decade. An India where the middle classes and their aspirations have grown tremendously. An India that can boast of more billionaires (in dollar terms) than Japan. At the same time, we live in an India where hundreds of our farmers are pushed to committing suicide. This is completely unacceptable. Further, it is incumbent upon us to redress such imbalances to the extent possible. The country's agrarian sector has been experiencing turbulent times for long, with farming becoming more and more unrenumerative. Farmers have suffered grievously, and this needs to be acknowledged by the rest of India. The situation in some parts of our country has come to such a pass that the debt trap they are in, coupled with successive crop failures and increasing input costs, has become unbearable. That is why the UPA government at the Centre thought it necessary and obligatory to intervene and announce a relief package of such gigantic proportions. This debt waiver is aimed at those small and marginal framers who are unable to meet their loan repayments, and is estimated to benefit four crore such farmers with land holding of less than two hectares. The waiver is time-bound, and will be executed before June 30, 2008. Never before in the history of independent India has a farm loan waiver of this magnitude been envisaged or implemented. Constant droughts, floods, failed monsoons and inclement weather conditions have only added to the woes of the Indian farmer, who already suffers from low agricultural investment, neglect of R&D, spiralling input costs, and poor productivity on account of outdated implements and technology.