After starting the year perpetually commenting on the gloomy tidings of the Greek crisis, Isis, and Putin, it is with palpable relief that I turn to what remains the single most positive international development of recent months – the re-awakening of the Indian giant.

While it is true that the government in New Delhi has confusingly just altered how it calculates GDP, that should not swamp the far more germane headline that India is economically on the move again, startlingly out-pacing even China in terms of growth, and set to do even better in the years ahead.

Wily old finance minister Arun Jaitely, one of the few members of the ruling BJP with experience navigating the shark-infested political waters of the capital, unveiled the Modi government’s first complete budget over the weekend. By New Delhi’s estimates, the country will grow at a pace of 7.4 per cent this fiscal year, and is set to rocket to a more-than-healthy 8-8.5 per cent rate of growth in 2015-2016. Reversing the last years of the Congress Party’s economic torpor, that makes India easily the fastest growing major economy in the world. And for all the rightful niggling about the budget that follows, that – and that alone – is the story here.

True, as the candid finance minister makes clear, this budget does not amount to another “Big Bang”. It doesn’t follow in the footsteps of the revolutionary budget of 1991, when then finance minister Manmohan Singh finally took on India’s stultifying “License Raj”, unshackling the country and setting it firmly on the path to exceptional rates of growth.

In terms of delaying shrinking the central government’s deficit, and not going further with structural reforms, especially regarding the country’s welfare schemes, it is disappointing. But given the headline growth rates, the BJP budget is still unambiguously business friendly, and is more than good enough to keep the country moving in the right direction.

David Fuller's view

Narendra Modi is probably as economically savvy as any other head of government.  He also has soul and will not cut subsidies for India’s millions of desperately poor, who also helped to elect him, until he has strengthened the economy sufficiently so that they are better able to look after themselves and their families. 

India’s economic policies are obviously pro-growth.  Now he needs a good monsoon to help struggling farmer and to keep food prices down.  India’s stock market is in a consolidation phase since the end of January and the Nifty Index is currently testing those highs near 9000.  The Mumbai Sensex Index is approaching the psychological 30000 level.  Both of these highs are likely to be cleared over the medium term, if not at the first test.