A lot was expected of this budget but it came a cropper, at least for the markets. It slid nearly 900 points on the Sensex and around 300 points on the Nifty

Former finance minister Yashwant Sinha, who is a BJP member actually termed it as "timid, tepid and unimpressive". There has been no word on disinvestment, no mention of banking and finance sector reforms which disappointed the markets as it tanked over 700 points as soon as the finance minister was done with his speech. Clearly our newest finance minister, Mr Pranab Mukherjee, had taken the steam out of the budget.

Mr Mukherjee, on his part, defended his budget. He said the market's reaction was a result of "over expectation," and there was enough scope outside the budget to usher in reforms. He emphasized that the immediate task of the budget was to accelerate demand which in turn will boost the economy. Although his budget was not laden with sops, announcements on personal tax, FBT, commodities transcation tax were taken as positives.

Corporate India too was not disappointed with the main text of the Budget. While income tax exemption limit was hiked and commodities transaction tax was scrapped, a raise in MAT (minimum alternative tax) level was taken quite sportingly by the corporates..