Earlier, no one seems to have any idea about demergers. Now, tax implications are not there in the case of mergers and demerger, he added.Khorakiwala praised the government for finally recognising the pharma sector as knowledge-based industry.

R&D efforts in the pharma sector will get a boost which is essential considering the fact that patented regime will begin in 2005, he added.Uday Kotak, himself a veteran of many M&A battles, supported Khorakiwala's claim that corporate restructuring will get a major push. "Budget has simplified the process of mergers and acquisitions," headded.

Kotak also sees an improvement in the fortunes of capital markets as it is inextricably interlinked to mutual fund sector. Budget has given enormous thrust to the mutual fund industry, the benefits of which will definitely spillover into the capital markets.

Thomas Cook (India) Ltd chairman Pradip Madhavji was the most disappointed of the lot. He criticised the finance minister for ignoring tourism sector after declaring 1999-2000 as "Visit India" year.

"I was expecting a lot of boosters. But tourism sector was completely ignored. This is not a welcome trend," he said.

If the government is serious enough in its commitment towards employment generation, tourism sector, which is a significant foreign exchange earner, would have been given lot of concessions, he added.

However, a silver lining in the dark scenario was the spate of sops doled out to infrastructure sector. Infrastructure development will jack up the tourist inflow, he added.

"Disappointing," this is how Shailesh Sheth, nationalchairman on capital goods (CII) reacted when asked about the union budget.

Key to capital goods sector growth is confidence. The budget could not provide even a semblance of that. How can one expect automobile sector to be cost competitive without favourable measures? he asks.

Premier Automobiles chairman Vinod Doshi also echoed the same view. "On the face of it, the budget appears to have totally ignored automobile sector. We have to read the fine print to get a clear picture," he said.