New Delhi, Feb. 1 -- The new Union budget presented by Nirmala Sitharaman on Sunday was crafted against a set of unique circumstances that have emerged in an increasingly turbulent world over the past year.

First, in a profound change in fiscal strategy, the finance minister had announced a year ago that she would aim to bring down the burden of public debt over the next five years, rather than mechanically focus on the annual fiscal deficit alone. Second, the remarkable economic stability secured since the end of the pandemic has recently (and paradoxically) been accompanied by foreign investment outflows as well as a weakening rupee. Third, the upending of the old global economic order by US president Donald Trump has meant that India ...