Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday dismissed the Opposition’s claims of the Union Budget favouring only NDA-ruled states as “unfounded”. Replying to the debate on the budget in Rajya Sabha, the minister said the budget came at a time when “external challenges” were severe, talk of globalisation was accompanied by “fragmentation in the world”, and “free market” beliefs accompanied increasing tariff barriers. Garib (poor), youth, annadata (farmers) and naari (women) were four crucial groups taken into consideration while drafting the budget, Sitharaman said. Story continues below this ad She said the government has kept the goals of accelerating growth and encouraging private investment. Sitharaman also countered the Opposition’s charge that the budget focused only on boosting consumption and neglected capital expenditure. Effective capex, said the minister, includes core capital outlays in the budget and grants-in-aid for the creation of capital assets in the states. “So, though grants-in-aid are accounted as revenue expenditure in the books of the Union government, they go to the states to create capital expenditure. So, they are effectively, eventually, only capital …