On the eve of the much anticipated budget, the Government economic survey called for large investments in agriculture, energy, and infrastructure and called for fiscal discipline and economic and labor reforms. Predicting a 2.3% growth to 209 million tons of food in agriculture, the survey called for a shift from the inefficient and expensive public distribution system procurement mechanism to develop alternate markets to transfer more profits to farmers. The survey highlighted the yearly 12% power shortage costs a USD 70 billion in lost opportunity amounting to a non-cumulative loss of a USD 1 trillion in a decade. Generally, economic growth if managed has an exponential effect, which would make the combined anticipated losses into several trillion USD. Noting that India needs an investment of USD 60 billion in the next 6 years for its infrastructure, the survey pointed out that infrastructure investment dipped from 6.4% to 4.5%. It said that lack of fiscal discipline such as in re-pricing oil and gas depletes public sector utility cash reserves and lowers their value making them unattractive investments. Further, unlike China, lack of reforms in protective and inflexible labor laws is affecting economic competitiveness of Indian industry.

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