Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the Union Budget 2020 in the Parliament today, which contained the details about the government’s revenue and expenditure for the fiscal year 2020-21. This is the second budget for Sitharaman, who became the second woman finance minister after Indira Gandhi to do so in the history of independent India. This is the first budget of the second term of the Narendra Modi government.
Like last year, Sitharaman opted for a traditional 'bahi-khata' to carry budget documents. Dressed in a crisp yellow silk saree, the minister carried the documents wrapped in a red silk cloth, adorned with the Indian emblem in golden.
The word 'budget' has its origin in the French word Bougette, which means leather briefcase. Traditionally, budget documents -- which primarily include papers related to revenue receipt and expenditure as well as the speech of finance minister -- were carried in a brown briefcase, a legacy passed on by the British.
However, traditional Indian businessmen used bahi-khata to maintain their books of account. India's gross domestic product (GDP) is expected to rebound and grow at a rate of 6 to 6.5 per cent in the next financial year 2020-21, according to the Economic Survey laid in Parliament on Friday.
Weak global growth impacting the country and investment slowdown due to crisis in the domestic financial sector had led to the government to estimate GDP expansion at 5 per cent for the current financial year ending on March 31.
(With inputs from ANI)
