Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s seventh consecutive Budget, the first of the NDA government’s third term, focused on employment creation, youth skilling, and the middle class. Her 1 hour and 40-minute speech included tax relief for those under the new tax regime, raising the standard deduction from Rs 50,000 to Rs 75,000. However, the markets reacted negatively, with the BSE Sensex dropping 1248.23 points and the Nifty falling by 409 points.
Sitharaman outlined nine Budget priorities: productivity, jobs, social justice, urban development, energy security, infrastructure, and reforms.
Earlier, Sitharaman, poised to make history with her seventh consecutive Budget presentation, posed with a tablet in a ‘bahi khata’-styled pouch before heading to Parliament. Morarji Desai had presented six consecutive budgets.
