The Indian government will present an interim budget to encourage the creation of jobs and export due to deep impact from the global economic recession, said the semi-official Press Trust of Indian news agency on Sunday.
The budget, a stimulus measure whose details remain unknown, will be presented by the government on Feb. 16 by External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who is currently holding the charge of finance portfolio, said the report.
However, the budget "may not contain any major policy decision, but it could cut certain indirect taxes to address the urgent concerns to arrest economic slowdown," said the report.
The report also quoted government officials as saying that alleviating job losses should be the government's priority.
"Demand for exports has gone down, so sectors like gems and jewellery, textiles etc need to be revived so that more jobs can be created," the report quoted Suresh Tendulkar, the Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council Chairman, as saying.
Apart from labor intensive ventures and exports, local economists are also counting on real estates as a way to revive the economy, according to local press reports.
A recent government survey says at least 50,000 jobs were lost in the last three months of 2008 in India due to economic slowdown. However, local labor union figures put the number of people who lost their jobs in the past four months at 2 million.
Official figures show all sectors of Indian industry, except IT and outsourcing, have been hit by the economic recession.