Hard-Headed or Soft-Headed? S Guhan The Economic Survey urged a "serious effort to introduce corrective measures through hard decisions and difficult choices". The budget's response to this call, the fudging apart, is feeble. And given the compulsion to contain the fiscal deficit to 6.5 per cent of GDP, incremental investment in infrastructure is likely to be seriously reduced in real terms in the coming year, retarding both growth and adjustment in the medium term.