The traditional 'bahi khata' was replaced with a 'made in India' tablet as Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman took to the floor of the house to present the first Budget of the decade, something which she herself termed a 'Budget like no other'.

While taxes were left untouched, the government pressed the accelerator on capital expenditure and put the focus on revenue mobilisation through asset monetisation instead of higher taxes. Prime Minister Modi congratulated the finance minister and her team, and said that the Budget will boost India’s self-confidence.

On the other hand, opposition leaders said that the Budget had nothing to offer to the common man. Reacting to the Finance Minister’s announcements, P Chidambaram, the Former Finance Minister, said that a direct cash transfer was needed for 6 months for the bottom 30 percent of the population.

On asset monetisation, he said that he does not support privatising PSBSs or one of the four insurance companies. However, he welcomed the increase in FDI limit in insurance to 74 percent.

“A five-year plan will always be attractive. What I want to know is what are you going to do in 2021-22. This asset monetization is not going to happen in 2021-22. Your two public sector banks take it from will not be privatized in 2021-22 – besides it is a bad idea. The Congress Party opposes privatising public sector banks. The Congress Party supports the space for private sector banks – we want public sector banks and private sector banks to compete with each other and become efficient. We don’t support privatizing a public sector bank nor do we support privatising one of the four insurance companies. We welcome the 74 percent FDI in the insurance sector,” he said.

For entire discussion, watch the video

Stay tuned with all the live action and updates with our Budget 2021 Live blog.

For full coverage on Budget 2021, click here

(Edited by : Bivekananda Biswas)