Pranab Mukherjee starts presenting Budget 2011-12

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FM leaves with annual Budget papers from his office to present the Budget 2011-2012 in Parliament

Stating that India has bounced back after the global financial crisis with broad-based growth, finance minister Pranab Mukherjee began presenting the federal budget for 2011-12 in the Lok Sabha on Monday.

"We are reaching an end to a remarkable year with high growth and many challenges. Our growth in 2010-11 has been swift and broad-based. Economy is back to pre-crisis growth trajectory," Mr Mukherjee said in his opening remarks.

"In the medium term, our three priorities of maintaining high growth trajectory, making development more inclusive and improving our institutions remain relevant," the finance minister added.

This was the sixth such exercise for the 75-year-old veteran politician. Three of them were presented between 1982 and 1984 and the one tabled on Monday was the third successive one for the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government.

Expectations were high from both households and the corporate sector as this budget is being presented against the backdrop of high inflation, fluctuating industrial growth, erratic exports and the general perception that the reforms process has retarded.

"I do not foresee resources being a major constraint, at least in the medium term," Mr Mukherjee said, referring to the money needed to address the larger agenda of growth, social programmes and infrastructure development.

He said the farm sector had shown a rebound with 5.4 per cent growth and industry was regaining its earlier momentum and services continued to grow at double digits. Fiscal consolidation, too, was impressive.