India Inc is largely happy as this budget is seen as the start of a new economic journey.

1. Bearing in mind this maiden budget was presented in 45 days of the Finance Minister being sworn in it is realistic not to have "big bang" structural reforms unveiled so quickly.

2. Positives include: (a) No populist move; (b) FDI limits increased in both defence and insurance from 26% to 49%. There is relief that finally, after several false dawns, the FDI limit in insurance is finally being raised; (c) Intent to reduce the fiscal deficit and keeping an eye on fiscal prudence and to spur economic growth; (d) GST to be introduced finally by end of year; (e) Infrastructure spending to continue to support economic growth; (f) Tax adventurism to end from here on; (g) REITs good news for stock market.

3. Negatives include: (a) Rather rosy assumptions made of growth - calculations could go awry especially since no details are given on what will drive growth to such levels; (b) Very ambitious target for privatisations; (c)No details on how the $ 43 bn subsidy regime (2.3% of GDP) will be reduced. This is worrisome as the ratings agencies could still downgrade India's sovereign rating to below investment grade or "junk" status; (d) The increase in FDI limit for defence to 49% will not be sufficient for foreign contractors to be willing to transfer technology if they do not have voting control.

Overall, a positive and pragmatic budget that has tried to address the needs of many sectors. The key will lie in implementation and speed of delivery. Very positive for capital markets - although from here they will focus on earnings catch-up, global markets and the effect of "El Nino" on the Indian monsoons.

David Fuller's view

Here is the India Report.

Rating agencies know this is a pro-business government embarking on a modernisation programme for India, which the country’s citizens voted for.  Therefore, I doubt they will downgrade India’s sovereign rating over the $43 bn subsidy regime, especially as they know that Narendra Modi intends to phase it out, although this cannot be done overnight.

India is currently consolidating this year’s already impressive gains, as you can see from these daily charts of Nifty, Sensex and Bankex.  Meanwhile, the weak and delayed monsoon is unlikely to be a disaster, as you can see from this Bloomberg article: Crop Planting in India Accelerates as Monsoon Revives.

Also, BlackRock is apparently forecasting that the Sensex May Double in Three Years, as you can see in this short video from Bloomberg.  That would exceed even my expectations.

This article, Cargo on Ganges in $25 Billion Modi Push to Unclog India, also from Bloomberg, shows the scale of Narendra Modi’s projects for modernising India.  This is the most welcome and promising change for a country in the world today, not least as India was previously thought to be all but ungovernable.