The Union Budget for 2023-24, presented by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in Parliament on Wednesday, saw a significant increase in the amount of public funds set aside for capital expenditure. As Ms Sitharaman pointed out, this was the third successive Budget with a major scale-up in government capital expenditure. Of the Rs 10 trillion set aside for this, more than half will go to the transport sector. And around half of that — about Rs 2.4 trillion — will go to the Indian Railways in particular, taking its capital expenditure to Rs 2.6 trillion for the year. The government is to be commended for its sustained emphasis on infrastructure spending in its Budgets and by correctly identifying the problem of under-investment that has plagued many of India’s core infrastructure sectors, especially transport.The Indian Railways, the workhorse of connectivity in the country and the backbone of its industrial economy,