The phrase “scorched-earth policy” has been much in use in the more credulous sections of the Delhi commentariat of late. The idea here has been that the United Progressive Alliance(UPA) government is deliberately mucking up the economy in order to leave a tougher job for the next government. This was always a bit of a stretch, but that doesn’t stop those primed to see conspiracies under every bush. In his interim Budget speech, Finance Minister P Chidambaram may have finally silenced these claims. In fact, he’s gone a lot further. This interim Budget, however, looks like it could stand up to scrutiny. No enormous decrease in subsidies is planned for. The total subsidy bill is supposed to remain the same as it was this year. True, that means that some expenditure on fuel will be rolled over to next financial year. But that happened last year too. The interim Budget only gives a nominal growth rate for the economy – so you have to take out inflation in order to get a more sensible picture of growth. In this case, with a reasonable figure for inflation, it looks like the FM has Budgeted for just over 6 per cent growth for the next financial year. That’s atleast a percentage point higher than India has right now.