Live On-Air Panel Discussion on TV9 on the Day of Union Budget by the Students of Economics, Christ University

“The Only Source of Knowledge is Experience—Albert Einstein”

On February 1st, 2018 when Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley was presenting the Budget for the year 2018-19, the nation was listening to him eagerly; and with Jaitley, the State of Karnataka also listened carefully to the budget analysis and post-budget discussion aired by TV9. It was a proud moment in the history of Department of Economics, Christ University Bangalore as six students of the department’s flagship MA Applied Economics programme took part in the live discussion titled “NamoNomics”. TV9 is one of the leading news networks in South India with a huge portfolio across the States of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. TV9 English is a 24/7 news channel that is operated under the TV9 network in Karnataka. TV9 English focuses on the issues pertaining to the State of Karnataka along with several national issues and it is one of the most watched news networks in the city of Bangalore.
Following the request made by the programme producer, a group of six students were assigned the task of listening to the budget and sharing their views on the macroeconomic impact of the budget. The group consisted of Ishani Chathopdhayay, Sonali Bheeraka, Jiss Palelil, Bhargav Dhakkappa, Kushal Jalan, Bodhodidas Gupta, all from first and second year MA Applied Economics. The programme kick-started with all the students going on air by 9:30 AM for the pre-budget discussion. All the six students shared their expectations and possibilities that the forthcoming budget may present to the Indian economy. This was followed by the live telecast of the budget speech by Honorable Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to both houses of the parliament. Once the budget speech was completed by the finance minister, the panel of
 
students again went on air, sharing their views on the possible impacts of the budget on the economy and how it may influence the 2019 general elections.
Kushal was of the opinion that the budget is a populist one to impress the larger sections of the voters across the country. His view was that the budget failed to recognize the contribution of the middle class and that the finance minister was shortsighted when it came to the allocation to the education sector. A similar view was shared by Ishani and Sonali. On the other hand, Jiss Palelil spoke how the budget failed to stick to the fiscal targets, otherwise proposed by the government before the budget speech. Tremendous sums allocated for healthcare and agriculture, though socially beneficial, may prove to be adding to already constrained fiscal deficit levels of the country. Bhargav gave an outlook of how the budget may have an impact on the debt-ridden banking sector in the country and Bodhodidas spoke about how the budget is just the mere reproduction of the policies that were announces in the previous budgets of the same  government.
The event proved to be a platform for the students to interact not just with a few but with the people across the city of Bangalore, who were listening to the budget talk as well as the follow-up discussion. The discussion and the on-air live programme extended for about 4 hours and it finally came to an end by 1:30 PM. The programme was watched by several thousands of people across the State of Karnataka. A live webcast of the same was also available online,  which was accessible for the public through the live channel of the TV9 English.
The video of the programme could be watched at the following link on YouTube:

https://youtu.be/A00g4oRkZW4?t=1012