Shah said that the union finance minister has initiated a number of bold decisions to bail out the economy from the current slowdown.

He said the increased outlay in infrastructure, plan outlay on energy, transportation, communication, housing and roads would vastly improve the situation and get back the economy on a seven per cent plus GDP.

Shah felt that the increased outlay in these sectors should help in improving the employment situation by kick-starting steel, cement and other downstream sectors.

The CII president also welcommed the special emphasis on agriculture, deresevation of farm tools, introduction of futures trading boards, enhancing of rural capital, rural insurance and rural banks. He observed that these would provide a renewed impetus to the sectorespecially with the revision in the prices of urea.

Shah also commended that the finance minister's decision of increasing the working capital limits for the SSI units and delinking of Sidbi from IDBI, which were long-standing demands of the sector.

On delicencing of coal, lignite and disinvestment up to 26 per cent in non-strategic sectors, Shah said these measures would provide commercial impetus to the sectors and reduce the stress on central exchequer.

He also welcomed the opening up of the insurance sector and lending statutoty status to the IRA. This, he said, would help in garnering funds especially for the infrastructure sector.

Replacement of FERA by FEMA and introduction of Money Laundering Bill would renew the confidence of foreign investors in the economy. Shah also felt that the capital markets reform, introduction of stock index futures, and amendment of Securities Contract Regulation Act, unlisted debt securities and corporatisation of brokers would help in getting back small investorsin the market. Further, incentives to NRIs in the form of PIO would help in increasing foreign investment in the economy. He also said that the introduction of eight per cent of non-modvatable duty would help the domestic industry and reduce dumping.

The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (Ficci), president, K K Modi summed up industry's feelings when he said "We were expecting the worst. But the finance minister has presented a development-oriented budget rather than the nuclear budget which was expected". He said that the FM had resisted the temptation to enter into an arms race and had not increased the defence budget as much as expected. "This is a development budget with a touch of Swadeshi" said the Ficci president. He hailed the fact that government had finally recognised the industry's demand for a level-laying field.

The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham) hailed the budget as "pragmatic and bold, under the present difficult circumstances" butpointed out that the budget did not give any indication to revive the capital market. The increase in petrol prices may have a cascading effect at a time when there is a slowdown in the industry, the chamber said. Also, the additional levy of excise duty to the order of nearly Rs 5,000 crore may adversely affect the certain segments of the industry, it added.

Calling it as "public investment-led growth budget" with focus on infrastructure sector, the Assocham president L Lakshman, described it as "industry and investor friendly" and complimented the finance minister for making "a sincere effort to restore the sagging business confidence, giving boost to the ailing economy and to reconcile conflicting objectives -- higher capital outlay to stimulate demand, to revive industrial activity and keeping the fiscal deficit and inflation within reasonable limits, mobilising more resources without raising the existing direct tax rates and globalising the economy without exposing the domestic industry to unevencompetition from cheap imports."

Lakshman welcomed the levy of additional import duty across the board with some exemptions and also increasing duty in respect of industries which have been suffering badly from cheap imports caused by drastic lowering of import duty. Commenting on the budget, the president of the PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry, O P Vaish, said "the budget proposals are expected to partially revive the slowdown in the economy. The measures announced to facilitate foreign direct investment and NRI investment will counter the negative impact of the sanctions by some developed countries," he added.

Welcoming the measures announced for the agriculture sector, Vaish said the proposal of restoring the balance of NPK fertilisers will have beneficial impact in the agricultural productivity. "However, the eight per cent across-the-board hike in import tariff could be inflationary and might raise the already high-cost structure of some import sensitive industries. Likewise, the sharp increasein the excise duty of some key commodities could result in higher level of inflation," Vaish pointed out.