'Need to be more aggressive with fiscal deficit'

In contrast to market expectations, infrastructure sector is unlikely to get a huge budgetary support, said Aditya Narain, head of research, institutional equities at Edelweiss. Budget 2019 can be 'neutral' to slightly positive for the sector, he told CNBC-TV18. He said that infrastructure might get a lesser share in expansion due to policy support toward lower rates, thus expecting infrastructure would be neutral to slightly positive.

Narain said that everyone is assuming that infrastructure will get that extra leg up, for a simple reason that a fair amount has been put into infrastructure, but it has not provided the same kind of delta.

Talking about infrastructure expenditure, Narain said, "What has changed between six months ago and now is the fact that you were at the point of time looking at growth acceleration in the economy, and now you are looking at growth revival. To that extent, because it is a riskier environment because it is more challenging from a funding perspective, we would fundamentally stay defensive on our portfolio."