Do you see any major bold steps taken in the Union Budget announced by Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday?

In short, there were a number of very bold and significant steps taken in the Union Budget 2021, which could have long term ramifications

· The budget has given a go ahead to the idea of a Bad Bank to take over the toxic assets of banks and hive off through a pass-through structure.

· The bad bank will take over toxic assets and either sell it as a block or create homogenous portfolios and securitize the same.

· The budget has conceptualized a domestic financial institution or DFI structure dedicated to the infrastructure space.

· This DFI will start with a government sponsored capital base of Rs.20,000 crore and it will build its book to Rs.500,000 crore in 3 years.

· In a bold move, the budget has gone beyond disinvestment and committed to privatize most companies not in specified strategic sectors.

· LIC, BPCL, CONCOR and SCI are proposed to be privatized during the fiscal year. The total divestment target is Rs.175,000 crore only for minority stake sale, but including LIC.

· The privatization boost will include 2 large PSU banks, apart from IDBI Bank, and 1 insurance company, apart from LIC.

· The government has enhanced the FDI or foreign direct investment in insurance from 49% currently to 74% which allows global players to play a bigger role.

· The budget will also push through the idea of a super regulator by merging the SEBI Act, Depositories Act and Securities Contract Regulation Act.

· The budget has also laid out the plan for one of the biggest monetization of government assets including roads, highways and gas pipelines.