The Eastern Economist March 6 1953 (Special Budget no. 1953-54)

The purpose of this Budget number is to put the Budget in its place; paradoxically this Budget number seeks to distract attention from the Budget and direct it to the real sources of weakness and strength in the Indian economy over both the short and long periods. [...] Almost the only immdiate decision left with the Finance Minister in detemining the general health of the economy is now an issue of the volume of deficit financing he is prepared to employ in order to fulfil the targets of the plan. [...] The result is shown in the table and in the graph alongside for the years 1948 to 1952. [...] The first of these is a rigid cost structure based essentially on the high cost of food due in the main to the level of imported foodgrains after the excessive devaluation of the Indian rupee in September 1949; the second of these is a matter of purchasing power to enable the products of Indian idustry to be absorbed at a rate compatible with the increase of production. [...] The first was revaluation of the Indian rupee which the Reserve Bank consistently rejected; the second was the increase or at least retention of the food subsidies.