Nirmala Sitharaman presents maiden budget for Modi 2.0 government

India’s first woman Union Finance Minister in almost five decades, Nirmala Sitharaman is presenting the full-fledged Union Budget for the current financial year. (Express photo: Neeraj Priyadarshi)

India’s first woman Union Finance Minister in almost five decades, Nirmala Sitharaman is presenting the full-fledged Union Budget for the current financial year. (Express photo: Neeraj Priyadarshi)

The first full-fledged Budget of the Narendra Modi 2.0 government, it is likely to further expand welfare measures announced in the interim Budget in February. (Express photo: Neeraj Priyadarshi)

The Budget is being presented at a time when unemployment had touched a 45-year high, and India had lost its tag as the world’s fastest-growing major economy to China in the last quarter of the fiscal year.

In the backdrop of BJP’s historic mandate in the recent Lok Sabha polls, the citizens are hopeful that the full-year Budget would further expand the welfare measures announced in the interim Budget. (Express photo: Renuka Puri)

The Budget is expected to boost spending at the cost of short-term slippage in fiscal deficit targets as she lays down the Modi 2.0 government's road map for the economy and the nation in the next five years. (PTI)

In her budget speech in Parliament today, Sitharaman said that Railway infrastructure would need an investment of Rs 50 lakh crores between 2018 and 2030. (Source: PTI)

Referring to the contribution of women in the success and growth of the country, FM Nirmala Sitharaman said that the “country’s tradition has been ‘naari tu narayani’. (Express photo by Vishal Srivastav)

Hours after the budget, the BSE Sensex Friday slumped 394.67 points and closed at 39,513.39 after the Budget proposal of raising public shareholding threshold stoked fears about liquidity in the market. The NSE Nifty too fell by 135.60 points to close at 11,811.15. (Express photo)

Focusing on better rail connectivity across the country, Sitharaman proposed public private partnership (PPP) in the country’s largest public transporter. In her speech, she said that Railway infrastructure would need an investment of Rs 50 lakh crores between 2018 and 2030. (Express photo by Vishal Srivastav)