Union Budget 2020-21: FM breaks own record of longest speech

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday delivered the longest budget speech ever, breaking her own record that she held for her first budget speech of 2019 despite cutting short the delivery after feeling unwell. Sitharaman cut short her Budget speech because she felt unwell after speaking for a record 162 minutes — 2 hours and 42 minutes — in Lok Sabha. She had only two pages of her Budget speech unread when she appeared uneasy and was seen wiping sweat from her forehead. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the Union Budget 2020-21 in the Lok Sabha. This is the second budget after Narendra Modi led National Democratic Alliance returned to power for a second term. This year's Union Budget centres around three ideas — Aspirational India, Economic development, A Caring Society. Central government to provide ?99,300 crore for educational sector in FY21. New education policy will be revealed soon, said Sitharaman. "Fundamentals of the economy are strong and that has ensured macroeconomic stability. Inflation has been well contained. Banks saw a thorough cleaning up of accumulated loans of the past decade and then they were recapitalized. Companies were provided an exit through the IBC. Several steps on the formalisation of the economy were taken up," said Sitharaman. It is said that size matters, but the longest speech in budget history did not guarantee Nirmala Sitharaman success. Her second budget had no big fiscal stimulus, several protectionist duties, and few convincing steps to revive a slowing economy. Disappointed investors sent the Sensex crashing 987 points. She is betting on a revival of the economy not so much by stimulating consumption — her income tax sops to the middle class will release a modest Rs 40,000 crore — as through a 21% rise in government capex, mostly on infrastructure. This will be financed mainly through record disinvestment of Rs 2.1 lakh crore next year, of which Rs 90,000 crore will be strategic sales (privatisation) and the initial public offering of LIC will be the star of the rest.