I am doing it as a tribute to Prof. Ramanadham who always insisted that there should not be a single superfluous word and every sentence should emanate from solid data presented with specific objectives, scope, limits and methodology. In a way, therefore, my address today is dedicated to Prof. Ramanadham.
Even if accrual accounting is set aside, it might still be prudent to eschew new longer-term, potentially irreversible commitments until we are assured that the on-budget surplus projections are less conjectural than they are, of necessity, today.