If you have produced what you think is a great work of art, it is galling when spectators nitpick over minor details and ignore the grand design. Palaniappan Chidambaram, India's finance minister, having delivered his two-hour budget speech on February 28th, seemed irked that most attention focused on just one proposed measure. This would impose a tax of 0.1% on cash withdrawals from banks of more than 10,000 rupees ($230) in any one day. The minister's questioners had a point: the idea is both important and odd.
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