With Digital India's movement getting a big push due to various changes brought in by the COVID-19 pandemic, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is set to keep up with the trend. Sitharaman has apparently ditched the traditional bahi-khata and is likely to deliver the budget speech using a made-in-India tablet.
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She was seen carrying a tablet in a red sleeve with the national emblem embossed on it.
Sitharaman, in her first budget in 2019, replaced a leather briefcase that had been for decades used for carrying budget documents with a traditional red cloth 'bahi-khata'.
In the run-up to the Budget Day, Sitharaman promised a Budget like 'never before'. A number of things were done differently this year due to the pandemic, including paperless preparations and no pre-Budget meetings.
In a first since India's Independence, the Budget papers will not be printed. The traditional method of printing the Budget, which involves about 100 people working together for a fortnight, was skipped due to the COVID-19 pandemic. All Members of Parliament (MPs) will get soft copies of the document.
As India emerges from the COVID-19 crisis, the ninth budget under the Modi government, including an interim one, is widely expected to focus on boosting spending on job creation and rural development, generous allocations for development schemes, putting more money in the hands of the average taxpayer and easing rules to attract foreign investments.