Key Points
Many think Sitharaman might deliver a populist budget in view of the upcoming Lok Sabha elections while many others think the government is under no pressure to please different voting segments with benefits in the budget due to the BJP's bright poll prospects...
There is another argument that Sitharamn might offer some benefits to the people at the bottom rungs of the economy in view of the high inflation in this financial year..
However, another category that the budget might target is the urban poor, not just to provide relief to them from high inflation but also to consolidate a new voting bloc...
While the rural poor have been the biggest beneficiaries of the BJP's welfare schemes, and justly so, the party has been trying to consolidate its urban labharthis too by offering them various targeted benefits which also make economic sense since the urban poor have been a relatively neglected category for long...
In Union Budget 2020-21, Sitharaman had proposed to launch a portal to collect relevant information on gig workers to help formulate social security schemes for them and the migrant workers population at large, ahead of the implementation of labour codes..
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