India, Feb. 2 -- Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman's eighth budget speech on February 1 may have lasted just 74 minutes - the shortest, excluding the interim budget she presented last year, with a speech that lasted just around an hour - but it will be remembered as one of the most significant budget speeches in decades, with a sweeping tax rebate aimed at reviving consumption demand and addressing a cyclical slowdown in economic growth.

Expectations of tax relief of some sort had run high in the run-up to the budget, and Sitharaman's opening sentence confirmed that one was in the offing: "This budget continues our government's efforts to: accelerate growth, secure inclusive development, invigorate private sector investments, upl...