Dhaka, Feb. 2 -- Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government is trying to pitch its latest federal budget as a way to boost foreign direct investment. Yet the changes unveiled on Sunday are piecemeal at best, exposing how the administration of the world's fifth-largest economy has virtually no fiscal wiggle room.

Granted, the measures Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has proposed will be selectively useful. Offshore firms like Alphabet's Google that use India-based data centres will enjoy a 20-year tax holiday and their related entities offering the service get a safe harbour of up to 15 percent on cost, with tax perks also being extended to India-based hubs of global firms.

Sitharaman is courting India's diaspora too - a common budget...