India's finance minister announced the government's new budget on Saturday, promising a slew of measures that attempt to balance welfare spending with high economic growth and infrastructure development, while vowing to keep a tight control on fiscal deficit, AP reported. It was Finance Minister Arun Jaitley's first full budget since Prime Minister Narendra Modi won a thumping majority in national elections in May on the back of promises to turn around the economy and boost job creation. "It's a very positive budget. No big bang, but a steady move forward," Ajay Shriram, president of the Confederation of Indian Industries, told CNN-IBN. "It's moving in the right direction." Jaitley said the Indian economy is slated to grow at 7.4 percent in the current fiscal year, which ends in March, and will continue grow at between 8.1 and 8.5 percent in the next year.
