As the Indian economy continues to struggle against the crippling financial impact of the Coronavirus pandemic, Nirmala Sitharaman, India’s first full-time Finance Minister announced the Union Budget 2021. For the first time, the voluminous Union Budget documents were not printed and the budget was announced in a paperless format. Sitharaman presented the Union Budget through a tab, instead of the traditional “bahi khata”.
The Finance Minister said the budget proposals for 2021-22 rest on 6 pillars of Atmanirbhar Bharat. These include health and wellbeing, physical and financial capital, infrastructure, aspirational India, reinvigorating human capital, innovation, and minimum government and maximum governance. The budget focused on bringing back growth to the Indian economy as it continues to reel from the impact of the Coronavirus pandemic, while also laying huge emphasis on privatisation measures. Sitharaman had promised prior to the announcement of the budget, that the budget for the year would be like never before. Given the financial impact of the Coronavirus crisis on all industries, the contraction of spending in both urban and rural areas, and job losses, all eyes and expectations were on the 2021 budget to revive the economy. So did Sitharaman’s third budget live up to expectations? Let us have a look at the highlights of the budget, measures taken to combat the financial impact of the Coronavirus pandemic and which groups were disappointed.