1. Problem of plenty: Starting his budget speech in characteristically self-congratulatory style, Yashwant Sinha reeled off statistics to show just how well the economy had done in 1999-2000 under his able leadership. Among the impressive array of numbers was the fact that: "Public stocks of food have reached record levels". Strangely enough, though, a document presented to parliament by Sinha just a day earlier - the Economic Survey - did not quite speak of these stocks in the same vein. This is what the Survey had to say: "One of the problems faced by the FCI particularly this year is that it is saddled with large volume of stocks, particularly of wheat, much above the stipulated buffer stock norms. So, was Sinha just being forgetful or was it his stock response to a problem.

2. Strengthen to kill: Still blowing his own on his trumpet, Sinha pointed out that his last budget had addressed several accumulated shortcomings. For instance, "we have strengthened our agricultural sector", he boasted. The results of the strengthening, as it turns out, is that agricultural output actually declined by 2.2 per cent in 1999-2000. Given Sinha's assertion that he has further strengthened agriculture in this budget, those stocks may yet turn out to be a blessing in disguise.

3. Whose role is it: While on his grand strategy for the next decade to make India an economic powerhouse, Sinha asserted that one of the prongs would be to: "strengthen (that dreaded word again) our role in the world economy through rapid growth of exports, higher foreign investment…" Now, surely higher foreign investment in India would be strengthening the world economy's role in India and not the other way around.

4. Downsizing or rightsizing: Sinha, appealing to the reform lobby, made the right noises on downsizing government. This is what he had to say: "We shall resolutely pursue the objective of downsizing government and prepare a roadmap for the purpose." If the details given in the Expenditure Budget can be treated as a roadmap, what they suggest is that the government is actually adding 81,000 jobs this year. Perhaps the argument could be that this is a slower pace of growth in government jobs than in population and hence represents downsizing in real terms.

5. Banking on them: Sinha also had a rather interesting mix of things to say on the banking and financial sector. For one, government will reduce its stake in banks to 33 per cent. Also, though they will remain public sector banks, they will be given full operational autonomy. Much the same has been said often for insurance firms. Which did not prevent Sinha from announcing targets and schemes that the banks and insurance firms would meet or launch - credit cards for farmers, SSI branches of banks et al. The logic: the government may not want to own banks, but it sure does want to run them.

6. Common cutlery: Sinha's indirect tax proposals had the usual dose of concern for the common man thrown in. Thus, some items had to be exempted from excise duty because they were in "common use''. Interestingly though, cutlery and electric bulbs of an MRP of Rs 20 figure in this list. If that is Sinha's notion of the common man's consumption basket, it is not really surprising that Laloo Yadav should have succeeded in convincing his electorate that the NDA was distanced from them.

7. Self-denial: The Finance Minister did not miss the opportunity to brag a little about his own principled positions. Hence, he pointed out that he had in the last budget proposed abolition of the FM's discretionary power to grant ad hoc exemptions in customs and excise duties except for strategic and charitable purposes. Impressive enough, but Sinha then went on to add that this "self-denying rule" had saved the government Rs 500 crore in the current year. Wonder how he worked out that figure. Could he be keeping track of how many exemptions he might have granted and did not? But why would he do that, unless…?

8. The Bengal package: Most media hawks were closely eyeing the railway budget for signs of the much-talked-about Bengal package. Of course, it did not really need keen eyes to spot Mamata's footprints. But that seems to have gone unnoticed is her stride into the Union budget. Evidence: Sinha in his budget speech announced that the government would subscribe to the preference capital of the Industrial Investment Bank of India to help it become more profitable and expand. The reason given: the IIBI "is the only Calcutta-based development financial institution". The mother's touch, as it were.

9. The wrong track: Lest this seem like a biased rendering of praise for Sinha alone, let it be said that the most sparkling gem of them all came from Mamata herself in the course of her railway budget speech. Building up what she presumably thought was a powerful argument for greater budgetary support to the railways, she pointed out that they were intimately connected to the freedom movement. Making sure that lesser mortals did not miss the connection, she added that Mahatma Gandhi started his struggle against the British only after being thrown off a train. It must be said that such a convincing reason for subsidising the South African railways has never been put forth in the Indian parliament, intentionally or otherwise.

10. We did it: Finally, Sinha wound up as he had started, singing praises of his government. A sample: "The new millenium has heralded the arrival of the Indian economy on the global stage. In two short years we have shown that Indian talent and Indian effort is second to none…" Wonder how N R Narayanamurthy and Aziz Premji would react to that.