The Finance Minister's comment came in response to the criticism that her maiden Budget speech did not include anything for the troubled agriculture sector.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharamans Budget is long on promises but short on ideas about fulfilling them

The shift might be aimed at boosting farmers' income but there is no extra outgo for two crore additional beneficiaries

Allocations have increased but mean absolutely nothing if structural reforms are what we have been hoping for

While expectations were that there would be 'big' measures to create jobs, the Budget was largely disappointing

Agriculture is a high potential area and the Budget tries to remind all of us that a farmer is also an entrepreneur

The budgetary estimate for the Agriculture Ministry for 2019-20 is 140 per cent higher than that for 2018-19 at Rs 57,600 crore, primarily due to Rs 75,000 crore allocation to PM-Kisan

In a televised statement on the Union Budget, the prime minister said new schemes have been announced to usher structural reforms in the agriculture sector.

Despite the list of achievements of Modi 1.0 that Sitharaman talked about, and the new targets she laid out - in terms of piped water to rural households, a common power grid etc - there was actually no tough decision or new idea that the Finance Minister announced

The Budget to be presented on Friday is expected to boost spending at the cost of short-term slippage in fiscal deficit targets as she lays down the Modi 2.0 government's road map for the economy and the nation in the next five years.

Union Budget 2019: Apart from raising the income tax exemption limit and as well as the deduction thresholds under Section 80C, India's middle-class wants Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to also tinker with tax slabs

Union Budget 2019 Expectations: The  Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) sector, which accounts for around 8 per cent of India's GDP, over 40 per cent of total exports and employs over 117 million people, is seen as the growth engine of the economy

Union Budget 2019 Expectations: The recommendations submitted by the Retailers Association of India (RAI) to the finance ministry recently calls attention to areas that may be able to spur on growth in the sector and push up its contribution to the GDP

Union Budget 2019: The BJP had promised a new scheme to provide collateral-free credit up to Rs 50 lakh for entrepreneurs

Union Budget 2019: The newly formed Jal Shakti Ministry is likely to find mention in Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's maiden budget, especially the flagship 'Nal se Jal scheme' that aims to provide piped water supply for every household by 2024

A 20 bps increase in fiscal deficit will not worry the markets much and some amount of fiscal slippage has already been factored in by the bond markets with the 10 year G-Sec trading at 110bps above the repo rate as compared to normal spread of 75bps.