1ST BUDGET OF ‘AMRIT KAAL’: NATION FIRST, CITIZEN FIRST

Last full Union Budget before 2024 Lok Sabha elections ticks all boxes

Moni Sharma

The “first Budget of Amrit Kaal”, as Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman called her fifth budget in a row on Wednesday. This was the Narendra Modi government’s last full budget before the 2024 Lok Sabha elec tion and came ahead of polls in nine states this year. Keeping that in mind, it ticked off as many boxes as it could without de railing government finances and had something for everybody -- from industry to the middle classes, farmers and various social groups that the BJP would like to keep on its side as the countdown for the