Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman took a tablet wrapped in a traditional ‘bahi-khata’ style pouch on Tuesday as she headed for Parliament to present the full Budget 2024-25 in a paperless format, continuing a practice from previous years.
Dressed in a white silk saree with a magenta border, Sitharaman posed for the customary ‘briefcase’ photo outside her office with her team before meeting President Droupadi Murmu at Rashtrapati Bhawan.
Instead of the usual briefcase, she carried the tablet inside a red cover with a golden national emblem. This marks her seventh consecutive Budget presentation under the Modi government since 2014, including two interim Budgets.
Sitharaman, India’s first full-time woman Finance Minister, broke the colonial tradition of the Budget briefcase in July 2019, opting for the ‘bahi-khata’ style. She introduced a digital tablet for Budget documents during the pandemic in 2021.
Before Sitharaman, finance ministers like Arun Jaitley and Piyush Goyal used the standard Budget briefcase. The tradition of the Budget briefcase originated from the British practice, dating back to the 18th century.
Since the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government, Budget presentations have been held at 11 am instead of the traditional 5 pm, marking a departure from colonial practices.
