Enforcement is the crucial word
If P Chidambaram's dream budget was derailed by coalition politics, Yashwant's version is threatened by a collapse of stock prices due to the shenanigans of a bunch of speculators and price manipulators.

While government targets interest rates
In his budget speech, the finance minister cut interest rates on provident fund and small savings schemes by 150 bps.

March of vandals
Neither the United Nations nor the sanctimonious West has covered itself with glory by showcasing their pusillanimous inaction in the face of the Taliban's operations aimed at destroying not just statues, but an invaluable part of the world's cultural heritage.

Infrastructure is the key
The meeting of state power ministers in New Delhi over the weekend was an important step in getting the policy initiatives taken in the union budget off the ground.

Unsolicited bounty
The finance minister's wish for better treatment at the hands of hacks in return for his Rs 1-crore budget-day gift to them appears to have been granted instantaneously, in the form of an ecstatic reception to his budget.