Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will be presenting her fourth Union Budget on February 1, 2022. In view of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic situation, this will be the second paperless budget after the Finance Minister went all digital last year and presented the Union Budget with a modern tablet.
Sitharam arrived in the Parliament for the Union Budget presentation wearing orange and maroon silk Pochampally saree with imprinted ikat patterns on the pallu, with a golden border. Pairing her traditional outfit with a matching maroon blouse, Sitharaman looked classic and elegant as she posed for the photographs in front of the Ministry of Finance, Central Secretariat in New Delhi. She is seen holding the tablet in her hands wrapped inside a red tablet sleeve in the pictures, in which she is surrounded by several government officials.
In 2021, Nirmala wore a bright red and off-white Pochampalli silk saree for her third budget presentation. She had paired it up with a matching red blouse, as seen in the picture below which was clicked before she presented the Union Budget.
For her first Union Budget presentation in 2019, Sitharaman had discarded the colonial traditions for carrying a briefcase and replaced it with a 'Bahi Khata' for keeping Union Budget documents. Interestingly, the word 'budget is derived from the Middle English word 'bowgette', which came from 'bougette' meaning a leather bag in French. The 'Bahi Khata' made a comeback in 2020 before being replaced with a 'Made in India' tablet next year.
Since 2019, Sitharaman has been serving as the Minister of Finance and Minister of Corporate Affairs in the Union government headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. She formerly served as the Defence Minister of India from 2017 to 2019. She is only the second female to have occupied these two portfolios after the former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
