New York, Feb. 2 -- New Delhi: The political test of the final full budget of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government before the 2024 elections was based on a simple metric - would it be enough to sustain the party's multi-class alliance or would budget measures fracture that wide alliance?

On this yardstick, union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman has passed the political test.

And she has done it while broadly focusing on macroeconomic stability and fiscal discipline, preparing the country for a green transition, offering direct tax cuts, investing in the technologies of the future, continuing on the path of public investment-driven infrastructure, incentivising local manufacturing, prodding states and the private sector to ...