Every February, businesses in India wait with bated breath for the country’s finance minister to announce the Union Budget. All major decisions – investment, expansion, diversification – come to a standstill as business leaders play the budget guessing game. Will taxes go up or down? Will new concessions be announced? Will doors open further to foreign investment or competition? In the hype that surrounds the moment each year, newspapers dedicate dozens of articles to this guessing game. Cartoonists shift their gaze from politics to the budget circus and TV channels gather all the “experts” to pontificate.