IIM Indore Screens
Union Budget 2008-09 Live
For the first time in IIM Indore,
Union Budget was screened live for participants and staff members on the big
screen of its auditorium. This is an event MBA students would like to follow and
keep themselves informed on, as an important national economic exercise.
Participants had great
expectations from Union Finance Minister, P. Chidambaram. Majority of the
students felt that the budget was in-line with the forth-coming national polls
scheduled for next year. Expressing his views, Vyasdeep Gupta, Sectetary,
Equit-I, the Finance Club of IIM Indore, said, "The Union Budget 2008-09 is
a fitting precursor to the upcoming general elections. The Finance Minister
seems to have left no stone unturned to please the masses and manifest the UPA's
concern for the 'aam aadmi'." For B-school graduates, he further said,
"The class of 2008 has a small reason to cheer. The income tax slab has been
revised and the exemption limit is raised from Rs. 1.1 Lakhs to Rs. 1.5 Lakhs.
This will see their take home packages raise marginally. Besides, the
government's proposals to create 3 new IITs and upward revision of the mid-meal
schemes augurs well for the education sector."
According to Saugato, PGP
participant, budget will have an adverse effect on the stock market. "The
inclusion of stock market services under the service tax net, increase in the
short-term capital gains tax and unchanged corporate tax rate will have a
telling effect on the market. The short term capital gains tax will affect day
traders and short term investors which constitute the bulk of the trading volume
on exchanges," Saugato commented.
Despite of a populist budget,
Dhruv Dhingra, a first year PGP participant, was happy with the rural focus of
the budget. According to him, new irrigation projects, increase in rural credit,
and a new monitoring agency to oversee implementation were some of the prime
highlights of the budget. Finance Minister's speech also tried to meet a long
standing demand of experts in relation to smart cards for the Public
Distribution System, as the system will be done on a pilot basis in Chandigarh
and Haryana.
Another participant, Nikhil
Kumar, termed the budget as progressive.
Overall, this year's union budget
received mixed views from the students' community of the institute.
