What the Economists and Business Heads think of Budget2017

 Government will need to give a fillip to consumption and investment. If they stay at 3.5% (fiscal deficit target) the sky's not going to fall.

Arundhati Bhattacharya (Chairman, SBI)

A Populist budget which either expands the budget deficit or invests tax collections into populism rather than into encouraging capital investment and sustainable growth would be a negative from an investor point of view.

Arvind Sanger (Geosphere Capital)

The finance minister had announced that they'll bring down corporate taxes by FY18-19 to 25%. This would be a good year to start that reduction, maybe remove the exemptions, but start cutting back the corporate rate.

Rashesh Shah (Edelweiss Financial Services)

If Arun Jaitley did give up on some fiscal discipline, that would do real good. let the economy come back to a growth rate of 8-9% and then tighten it.

Sajjan Jindal (Chairman, JSW Group)

I would expect some fiscal stimulus, either through reduced taxes or increased spending or a combination of both, some recapitalization for banks. 

Vibhav Kapoor (IL&FS)

If you go too populist now (in the Union Budget), in a way you are acknowledging that the demonetization has hurt.

Gautam Chhaochharia (UBS)

The deficit target could be between 3-3.5% of GDP. It cannot be less than 3% because that's the target, it can't be more than 3.5% because the markets may not like it.

Neelkanth Mishra (Credit Suisse)