Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman with Pankaj Chaudhary and full budget team during giving final touches to the Union Budget, in New Delhi, on July 22, 2024.
| Photo Credit: PTI

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will be presenting the Union Budget 2024-25 on July 23, 2024.

It will be a record seventh consecutive Budget presentation for Ms. Sitharaman.

Also read: Budget 2024 LIVE News, highlights: 23 July

Previously, Morarji Desai presented the Union Budget for six times consecutively. Interestingly, Morarji Desai presented budgets for record 10 times followed by former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram 9 times.

The former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh presented five consecutive budgets in a row between 1991 and 1995. Pranab Mukherjee also presented budgets for five times consecutively out of his 8 presentations.

The monsoon session of parliament started on July 22 with the tabling of Economic Survey 2023-24.

The Lok Sabha’s business advisory committee decided to discuss issues related to the ministries of railways, education, health, MSME, and food processing besides the Union Budget.

A total of 20 hours has been allocated for the debate on the budget.

Congress leader Jairam Ramesh
| Photo Credit: PTI

As financial markets went for a tumble on June 4 after the trends of the Lok Sabha poll results showed that the BJP was not getting a majority on its own, the Congress said the markets were given an artificial booster dose by the exit polls and have now turned turbulent.

The Congress also recalled the words of former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in 2004 to say that the party is committed to an orderly and healthy development of the financial markets that reflect the fundamentals of the economy.

For constituency-wise real-time updates, visit our Election Results page

Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said the party-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government provided a fear-free and intimidation-free 10-year period (2004-14) for the private sector that helped the country achieve its highest Gross domestic product(GDP) growth.

“Financial markets that were given an artificial booster dose by the exit polls are turbulent today. In this context, it is wise to recall the words of Dr. Manmohan Singh on May 17th 2004, the last occasion on which the markets were faced with prospect of such regime change,” Mr. Ramesh said in a post on X.

Recalling Mr. Singh’s words, he said, “There is absolutely no need for panic in the market. Very soon the alliance will unveil its Current Market Price[CMP]. The CMP will demonstrate the commitment of the United Progressive Alliance to fiscal discipline, realistic growth-oriented tax policies, control of unproductive and wasteful public expenditure and increased emphasis on agricultural growth, education, health, food security and social security in the context of a fast-growing economy that is integrating with the world as well.” “The Congress is committed to the orderly and healthy development of the financial markets that reflect the fundamentals of the economy. Our tax policies and foreign direct investment regime will be pro-growth and will create an environment favourable for both Indian and foreign enterprises,” Mr. Ramesh said, quoting Mr. Singh’s words.

Election Results 2024: NDA leading in 12 seats with less than 1% vote margin, in 16 seats with 1-2.5%

He added that what followed in 2004 was a “fear-free and intimidation-free decade for the private sector — a decade of the highest GDP growth India has ever seen, along with the highest private investment as a share of GDP”.

Early trends of the Lok Sabha poll results on June 4 threw up disappointing results for the BJP-led NDA, which appears to be losing big in its strongholds of Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Rajasthan, although it is expected to form the government with about 290 seats.

Chandigarh:

Reacting to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “five PMs in five years” remark, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said on Tuesday that similar things were said even in 2004 but the UPA government completed two full terms under one PM, Manmohan Singh.

Addressing an election rally at Pratapgarh in Uttar Pradesh on May 16, PM Modi had said the INDIA bloc wants to make five prime ministers in five years and claimed that it will disintegrate after June 4.

Mr Kharge responded by rejecting PM Modi’s claims.

“In UPA I and UPA II, we were supported by other parties and we completed the full term,” Mr Kharge told reporters here.

For 10 years, there was one Prime Minister, a person who came from the land of Punjab, ran the country and changed its economy, he said about former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Taking a dig at the BJP, he further said, “Whereas they did nothing for 10 years.”

Accompanied by former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Mr Kharge arrived here after addressing an election rally in Jagadhri in Haryana.

On the ruling party leaders’ frequent questions on the opposition’s “PM face”, Mr Kharge said, after the polls, the INDIA alliance partners will sit and decide this (if the opposition wins the election).

He said the BJP has been saying that the Congress or the INDIA alliance does not have a face like PM Modi. They used to say the same thing in 2004 when Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the prime minister, the Congress president said.

“After the polls, alliance partners will sit and decide. Like we ran UPA government, in similar manner we will do this,” he said.

Replying to a question, Mr Kharge claimed that the INDIA bloc has gained good ground in the ongoing Lok Sabha elections.

“Everywhere we are gaining and they are losing. Our alliance will definitely stop the Modi government from coming to power,” he said, and added, “the people are fighting against PM Modi and we are supporting them”.

Voting for the sixth and seventh phases of elections will be held on May 25 and June 1 respectively.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:

Former vice president Mohammad Hamid Ansari, former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, former deputy prime minister LK Advani and former Union minister Dr Murli Manohar Joshi have cast their votes using the home voting facility, the Delhi poll body said.

The office of the chief electoral officer (CEO) of Delhi on Thursday kicked off the home voting facility for elderly voters and persons with disabilities (PwDs) and it will go on till May 24.

According to the data shared by the office, 1409 voters cast their ballots from the comfort of their homes across all seven parliamentary constituencies in Delhi on Friday, which was the second day of the facility being started.

The West Delhi constituency reported the highest number of home votes, with 348 voters participating. Among them, 299 were elderly individuals. With the completion of the second day, a total of 2,956 voters have exercised their right to vote from home, the CEO office said. “Former prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh and former Union minister Dr Murli Manohar Joshi successfully cast their votes on May 17 from their home availing home voting facility in the New Delhi parliamentary constituency,” the office said.

Former vice president Mohammad Hamid Ansari cast his vote on Thursday, it added.

Former deputy prime minister LK Advani cast his vote on Saturday, sources said. On the first day, 1,482 voters exercised their franchise from home. A total of 5,406 voters across Delhi — elderly individuals and PwDs — have filled out Form 12D to avail of the home voting facility in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

This initiative ensures these voters can participate in the electoral process with ease and dignity, eliminating the need to visit polling stations. Delhi will go to polls on May 25.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:

Congress’ Mallikarjun Kharge, incensed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s fresh “minority appeasement” allegations, has accused him of making divisive comments for votes. PM Modi and the BJP’s ideological mentor Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, Mr Kharge also claimed, have a “hidden agenda”.  

Calling the Prime Minister’s remarks “unfortunate”, he said the Congress is “not appeasing anyone”. “It is on our manifesto, it is not a hidden agenda…if anyone has a hidden agenda, it is Modi and the RSS,” he said, accusing the Prime Minister of towing the RSS line.

PM Modi’s comment that the Congress government under Manmohan Singh had said Muslims have the first right on the country’s wealth, has sparked a huge political row, with the Opposition heaping criticism on him and the BJP.

Speaking in Rajasthan over the weekend, PM Modi had said the Congress, in its manifesto, said if they form the government, “everyone’s property will be surveyed, it will calculate gold belonging to mothers and sisters and then redistribute it. They won’t even spare your mangalsutra”.

“Do you accept this? Does the government have a right to seize your property? Gold is not for show off, it is linked to women’s self-respect. Her mangalsutra is linked to her dreams. You want to snatch it?” he had said.

PM Modi also said when the Congress was in power under Dr Manmohan Singh, it had said Muslims have the first right on the country’s wealth. “This means that they will gather this property and distribute it among people who have more children, among infiltrators. Will your hard-earned money be given to infiltrators? Do you accept this? The Congress manifesto is saying this,” he had said.

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman speaks in the Rajya Sabha during the Budget session of Parliament, in New Delhi on Febuary 10, 2024.
| Photo Credit: PTI

The United Progressive Alliance (UPA) squandered the opportunity to implement the unfinished reforms agenda from 1991 during its decade in office, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in the Rajya Sabha on Saturday, accusing the Manmohan Singh government of “thorough mismanagement” after the global financial crisis.

Citing a Tamil proverb “Mullu Mel Potta Thuni Mathiri” (Like a cloth placed on thorns) in response to a discussion on the White Paper on the Economy, Ms. Sitharaman said the Narendra Modi government had to carefully extricate India’s economy out of the thorns the UPA had tangled it in, without ripping its fabric.

“The economy was like a piece of cloth on that thorny bush, the thorns were all those malpractices that had torn into the economy. The whole world was using the phrase Fragile Five for all of us. What was the level of fragility? From the bottom, you were within the first five,” she said.

“After all, you [UPA] inherited a very good economy from the Atal Behari Vajpayee government. And maybe in your first five years, you tried benefiting the people with that good economy. But subsequently, and unfortunately, after the global financial crisis, it was thorough mismanagement,” the Minister said.

Stressing that the White Paper was being brought out now “after 10 years of toiling to bring the economy back on track”, Ms. Sitharaman said it would serve as a record for posterity, when the intent was not good and transparency was not there in the economy. “We need to have clean and accountable governance, not governance through extra-constitutional bodies,” she remarked.

She reminded the House that the first Cabinet decisions under Mr. Modi were the formation of a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to remove black money and the Expenditure Reforms Commission under Bimal Jalan “so that profligate expenditure of the earlier government could be rationalised”.

Referring to former PM Singh, Ms. Sitharaman said that the “promised reforms of 1991 were not complete and “when there was an opportunity again between 2004 and 2014, no reforms” were undertaken.

“It is one thing to continuously tell us what have you done… What have you done on the two-track approach, which is required for the train to go forward, one to remove the malpractices’ impact on the economy and to not only carry forward those pending reforms, which have been waiting from 1991, but also even further to take the economy forward. So, that is the track which we laid for ourselves,” she said.

Dismissing Congress MP K.C. Venugopal’s charge that the demonetisation of high-value currency notes in late 2016 had wiped out India’s Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), the Minister said as many as 3.16 crore MSMEs were registered on the Udyam platform as of December 4, 2023, and urged the Opposition to do “some more homework”.