Nepal, June 17 -- Every budget is a statement of intent. The Balendra Shah administration's first is a statement of ambition.

Nepal is at an inflection point. The new government carries a strong mandate and an even stronger set of expectations from Nepalis who demanded reform, opportunity, and an end to drift. Every day, roughly two thousand Nepalis leave the country in search of work they cannot find at home. That figure is the most honest measure of what Nepal's economy has failed to deliver, and the clearest of what this budget must begin to reverse.

Against that backdrop, the temptation would have been a budget of consolation, spreading thin comfort across every constituency. Instead, the government has chosen a harder path - a budg...