With a cherry-brown briefcase in hand, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee arrived in parliament on Monday to present India's budget for this fiscal with hopes high that his proposals will help put the $1.2 trillion economy back on the high growth track.

Dressed in a spotless white bandhgala suit, the 73-year-old politician will have to draw from his experience of having presented three regular budgets as finance minister between January 1982 and December 1984 to find the resources for a host of pre-election promises made by his Congress party.