Kerala will be keeping its fingers crossed as Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presents the Union Budget on Tuesday. While nursing the grievance that many of its past demands remain unattended, the State is pinning its hopes on measures for overcoming the pandemic-induced slump in multiple sectors.
Kerala’s wish list includes State-specific packages, with focus on sectors such as agriculture, agro-processing, and micro, small and medium enterprises. Among other things, the Communist Party of India (Marxist)-led Left Democratic Front government is also looking at support for flagship programmes, including the SilverLine semi-high-speed rail corridor project.
Finance Minister K.N. Balagopal had raised these and a number of other demands during the pre-budget consultations in New Delhi in December.
