<div>The BJP-led ruling coalition’s rivals attacked Budget 2014, giving it different monikers. If some called it the “Rs 100-crore scheme” Budget for the 28 Rs 100 crore proposals suggested by the finance minister, others said it borrowed heavily from the previous Budget presented by the UPA government’s P. Chidambaram.<br /><br />But if we did indeed miss the big message behind this year’s Budget, it was clearly BJP’s attempt to redeem itself after a bitter election campaign. Right through the fight for Lok Sabha 2014, the BJP and its prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi were attacked for being pro-big business and pro-rich. With Budget 2014 — the first real statement of the intentions of the ruling coalition — the government made an attempt to project itself as pro-small business, pro-SMEs and pro-poor. Perhaps, even pro-middle class.<br /><br />That said, it appeared to have been put together in a hurry by accommodating several demands of multiple industry associations.<br /><br />Big businesses will really have to scrape the bottom of the barrel to salvage something for themselves — except for defence manufacturing, if it does take off at all.<br /><br />Naysayers aside, this Budget was about small businesses, entrepreneurs, foreign institutional investors and real estate. Period. In the following pages we attempt to present an easy-to-grasp ready reckoner of the key takeaways of Arun Jaitley's maiden Budget. Read on... <br /><br />(This story was published in BW | Businessworld Issue Dated 21-08-2014)</div>
