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Budget 2021: Finance minister Sitharaman's speech begins
Nirmala Sitharaman's budget speech began at around 11 am with the finance minister beginning it with an address to the Speaker of Lok Sabha.
The Union cabinet held a meeting on Monday, ahead of the presentation of Union Budget in Parliament. The cabinet headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi approved the budget for the financial year beginning April 1.
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In the budget, Sitharaman is expected to roll out measures to lift the economy from the worst economic slowdown in 11 years which was induced by the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic.
Meanwhile, Sitharaman and her team met President Ram Nath Kovind on Monday, an hour before presenting her third budget. She was accompanied by her deputy Anurag Thakur and other officials of the finance ministry.
With the Union Budget 2021-22 set to be delivered in paperless form for the first time, Sitharaman replaced the Swadeshi 'bahi khata' and switched to a tablet.
Sitharaman's budget speech began at around 11 am with the finance minister beginning it with an address to the Speaker of Lok Sabha. Usually, the duration of the presentation ranges from 90 to 120 minutes.
The finance ministry had tabled the Economic Survey in Parliament on Friday. It said that the Indian economy can contract by 7.7% in the current financial year ending on March 31 and the growth could be 11% in the next financial year, according to the survey.
The contraction in FY21 is mainly due to the coronavirus pandemic and the visible damage caused by the subsequent countrywide lockdown to contain it.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) recently pegged the contraction in India's economy at 8% in 2020-21. It expects a growth rate of 11.5% in 2021-22 before a decline to 6.8% in 2022-23 and that India will regain the tag of the fastest-growing large economy in the world in both years.
