Finance Minister Sitharaman to present 7th successive Union Budget, sets new record as FM
The country’s Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, will present her seventh consecutive Union Budget—the personal record of any Finance Minister during her tenure in office and the first instance in the history of the country’s Parliament. As she rises to present the budgetary proposals for the fiscal year ahead, it is hoped that Sitharaman will quite deftly be able to pilot the economy at this juncture through global challenges and domestics.
Sitharaman’s journey and leadership
She took over as Minister of Finance, India, in May 2019, becoming the first full-time lady minister to handle the Ministry of Finance. She has had an eventful tenure so far with a hands-on approach to economic policy-making and strategic reforms—a bouquet of initiatives is aimed at fostering greater inclusiveness and building economic resilience.
Before becoming the Finance Minister, Sitharaman was the Minister of State for Finance and Corporate Affairs, in which she was exposed to handling the gamut of India’s economic policies and financial governance. Her background in the areas of economics and corporate affairs has equipped her with insights to handle such complex issues and steer the economy of India toward sustainable growth.
Challenges and Economic Landscape
Just ahead of the Union Budget that Sitharaman will present for the fiscal year 2024-25, at the very forefront lies a challenging economic landscape sculpted by global uncertainties, with a demeaning reference to the COVID-19 pandemic, fluctuating oil prices, geopolitical tensions, and inflationary pressures. The domestic challenges that continue to stare India in the face are those related to unemployment, agrarian distress, and infrastructure development needs, while its fiscal consolidation remains a major concern.
The budgetary priorities of the Finance Minister are most likely to be the revival of economic growth, creation of more job opportunities, giving a fillip to health infrastructure, promoting digital transformation, and reducing the impact of climate change on agriculture and the vulnerable. Fiscal prudence is supposed to balance the requirement to stimulate growth, so given the divergence in indicators, it is going to be a fine balancing act for Sitharaman.
Key Focus Areas and Policy Initiatives
In the past budgets, Sitharaman has spoken about structural reforms, smoothening taxation systems, promotion of digital payments, and the ease of doing business. The budget for next week is expected to continue such initiatives and new initiatives that make India competitively resilient in a fast-changing world.
In this context, she expressed interest in investments in Health, Education, Infrastructure, and Technology. Sitharaman’s zeal for sustainable development, innovation, and entrepreneurship finds an echo in India’s dream to evolve as an economic powerhouse of the world while ensuring socio-economic equity.
Sector-wise Outlays and Development Priorities
The Union Budget usually allocates resources across sectors based on developmental priorities and strategic objectives. Under Sitharaman’s stewardship, the first turn of attention will be towards health, education, agriculture, manufacturing, renewable energy, and digital infrastructure.
More importantly, from the experience and lessons learnt from COVID-19, it is incumbent to have measures for strengthening healthcare infrastructure, vaccination coverage, and accessibility to health care. With respect to improving human capital through better education outcomes, digital learning initiatives, skill development programs, and funding for research remain pivotal for fomenting a spirit of innovation in India.
Fiscal Management and Revenue Mobilisation
For Sitharaman, effective fiscal management has been integral to her budgetary philosophy, encapsulating efforts at improving revenue mobilization, expenditure rationalization, and bringing prudence to the management of public debt levels. As per the finance minister, fiscal rectitude should lead to investor confidence, macroeconomic stability, and sustainable economic growth over the medium to long term.
The revenue enhancement measures would comprise rationalization of tax structures, broadening of the tax base, fanning the segment of voluntary compliance, and use of technology to plug tax evasion. Sitharaman’s budgetary projections will have to walk the tightrope between generating revenues and compulsions for expenditure in a manner that fiscal sustainability remains intact and at the same time, development imperatives can also get accommodated.
Global and Domestic Economic Outlook
The trajectory of India’s economy in the coming fiscal year will be steered greatly by the global economy, trade dynamics, monetary policy decisions by major economies, and geopolitical developments. Sitharaman’s budgetary measures are intended to ride out such external uncertainties even while she takes help from the intrinsic strengths, demographic dividend, and innovation-driven growth potential within India.
Back home, this kind of growth shall be achieved through the catalyzing of private sector investments, entrepreneurship, and job creation. The finance minister indicated that the policies had been drafted with the view of empowering SC/STs and other weaker sections, promoting social equity, and making India’s economy more resilient to external shocks.
Public Expectations and Engagement of Stakeholders
The Union Budget is a mainstream policy document that sets the tone for the economic agenda in India and impacts business, investors, consumers, and the general public. Stakeholder consultations, pre-budget discussions, and feedback channels provide an avenue for Sitharaman to infuse various perspectives and priorities related to budgetary proposals.
However, the general public expects more from tax reforms, infrastructure building, welfare schemes, and management of inflationary pressures, with other sector-specific challenges. Sitharaman’s governance style is more of an inclusive approach in that it encompasses stakeholder ship, transparency in her administration, and clarity in explaining policy goals to garner support for budget initiatives.
Conclusion
In the process, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will lead the presentation of the Union Budget for the fiscal year 2024-25 and will continue to be one of the chief architects of India’s economic policies against the backdrop of global uncertainties and domestic imperatives. Under her astute leadership, in terms of strategic reforms and initiatives that function to make growth more inclusive, the effort is to steer India toward sustainable development, resilience, and prosperity.
In the seventh consecutive time, Sitharaman puts the economy back on track through this set of initiatives on revitalizing economic momentum, social welfare, and innovation to meet India’s aspirations for coming out stronger from global challenges. The budgetary proposals stand poised to shape India’s economic trajectory, foster its inclusive development, and reaffirm its position as one of the dynamic and resilient economies in the world.
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