Breaking from long-standing tradition, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is set to deliver a Union Budget speech on Sunday, February 1, that will place unprecedented emphasis on Part B of the Budget, government sources said. The Union Budget 2026 speech is expected to look markedly different from those delivered over the past 75 years, with the second part of the Budget speech taking centre stage.
A file photo of Prime Minister Narendra Modi with finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman
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Sitharaman will present her record ninth consecutive Union Budget, with expectations high around reforms and planned government expenditure. However, unlike previous years where the speech largely focused on Part A - which outlines planned initiatives and sectoral strategies - this year’s presentation is expected to devote significant time and detail to Part B.
Government sources said the finance minister is likely to speak at length in Part B, marking a clear departure from earlier budget speeches where the section consisted of only a few announcements.
“Part B of the Budget speech will place strong emphasis on both short-term and long-term goals,” sources said, adding that it would reflect India’s economic vision and priorities as the country moves deeper into the second quarter of the 21st century.
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According to the sources, Part B will also offer a roadmap for showcasing India’s local strengths on the global stage, highlighting the country’s current capabilities as well as its future potential.
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According to the sources, Part B will also offer a roadmap for showcasing India’s local strengths on the global stage, highlighting the country’s current capabilities as well as its future potential.
The second part of the Budget is expected to draw significant attention from economists and experts in India and around the world, given its broader implications for the economy and policy direction, the sources said.
Officials described this year’s budget presentation as a rare departure from convention, noting that earlier speeches typically contained extensive detail in Part A, while Part B remained relatively brief.
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The presentation of the Budget for April 2026 to March 2027 fiscal will be on Sunday, a first in independent India's history.
The budget comes against a backdrop of international uncertainties. While domestic demand has held up and recent GDP growth at 6-quarter high of 8.2%, it comes amid geopolitical tensions, volatile commodity prices and uneven monetary easing by major central banks.
Shishir Gupta is Executive Editor at Hindustan Times and one of India's top journalists covering national security, strategic affairs, foreign policy and geopolitics. Over the past three decades, he has extensively reported on India's military, diplomatic and security landscape, covering every major conflict and national security challenge, from the 1999 Kargil War and the 2020 East Ladakh standoff to Operation Sindoor in 2025. He has also covered major terror attacks, including the IC-814 hijacking, the 26/11 Mumbai attacks and the 2025 Pahalgam terror strike, along with numerous Pakistan-backed terrorist incidents in the Kashmir Valley and across India. He has reported on national and state elections for more than three decades. A recognised authority on strategic affairs, Gupta has covered India's nuclear programme since the Pokhran-II (Shakti series) tests in May 1998 and has written extensively on global nuclear issues, Indian diplomacy and the country's expanding global outreach. He has also reported widely on international conflicts and terrorism, with a special focus on the Indian subcontinent. Gupta has interviewed Prime Minister Narendra Modi more than four times, including Modi's first interview with the print media after becoming Prime Minister in May 2014. His other interviews include three with the Dalai Lama, as well as conversations with Benjamin Netanyahu, Amit Shah, Yogi Adityanath, S. Jaishankar, Nirmala Sitharaman and Piyush Goyal. He is the author of Indian Mujahideen: The Enemy Within (Hachette, 2011) and Himalayan Face-off: Chinese Assertion and Indian Riposte (Hachette, 2014). He was awarded the Chevening-Wolfson Joint Scholarship at Wolfson College, University of Cambridge, UK, in 1998 and participated in the International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) of the US State Department in 2006. He received the Ben Gurion Prize from Israel in 2011 and the K. Subrahmanyam Prize for Strategic Studies in 2015 from the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (MP-IDSA). Since 2024, he has hosted Point Blank, Hindustan Times' weekly YouTube show on global geopolitics.
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Home/India News/Exclusive: Sitharaman's Budget speech today set to be unique, focus on long-term goals
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