2024-07-07 12:27:14
New Delhi: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is going to present the first full budget of the third term of the Modi government on July 23. The general public, industrialists and students have high expectations from this budget. This budget, which is being presented amid signs of global recession, may focus on employment generation along with strengthening the domestic economy. Measures can also be taken to control expenditure and increase tax revenue to reduce the fiscal deficit. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has many records to her name. Let us know about those records here.
The highest budget
This will be Sitharaman’s seventh consecutive budget. So far no finance minister has presented so many consecutive budgets. In this case, she will surpass Morarji Desai’s record of six budgets. Earlier, Sitharaman has presented two interim budgets of 2019 and 2024 and four full budgets.
Longest budget speech
In 2020, Nirmala Sitharaman gave the longest budget speech, which lasted two hours and forty minutes. LIC IPO and new income tax slabs were announced in that budget. In 2019 too, her speech was two hours and seventeen minutes long.
first digital budget
In 2021, Nirmala Sitharaman became the first Finance Minister to present the budget digitally using a tablet instead of paper. The budget was presented in a completely digital format, with both speeches and documents being paperless. Nirmala Sitharaman used a ‘Made in India’ tablet to deliver the budget speech.
Ledger instead of briefcase
In 2019, Sitharaman used a red ‘bahi khata’ instead of the traditional briefcase for budget documents. She did this by breaking the British era briefcase tradition. The red-covered ‘bahi-khata’ was a symbol of Indian tradition. Red cloth is usually used to cover religious texts. It added cultural symbolism to that year’s budget.
first woman finance minister
Nirmala Sitharaman also became the first woman to become Finance Minister for the third time in May. Nirmala Sitharaman became the first woman Finance Minister in 2019. Till then no woman had got this post independently as Finance Minister. Nirmala Sitharaman was also the first woman Defense Minister who flew a fighter plane.