Ashishkumar Chauhan, MD & CEO, NSE, has expressed views on the budget for the financial year 2024-25 presented by Finance Minister Mrs Nirmala Sitharaman. He said that the Finance Minister has given a huge fillip to job creation in India by ensuring that the private sector also participates in job creation in addition to the government sector while ensuring that India becomes the number 1 start up nation and a nation of entrepreneurs by providing relief on the angel tax as well as increasing Mudra loan scheme limit from Rs 10 lakhs to Rs 20 lakhs per person. She has also focused on increasing women participation in India’s labour force which will help India reap demographic dividend even further by increasing young women’s participation in the workforce. Skill development as a part of job creation has been also an out of the box idea from her while keeping infrastructure outlay intact and reducing fiscal deficit at 4.9% from the expectation of 5.1%. All these things are being achieved without much tinkering with the direct or indirect tax structure ensuring that India’s long term credit rating improves by giving a glide path to 4.5% fiscal deficit in 2025-26. Overall, 10/10.