On 1st February 2021, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the first ever paper-less and digital Union Budget for the fiscal year 2021-22. This is the first time the budget documents were paperless since Independence. All members of Parliament received soft copies of the Union Budget.

We wanted to find out how Union Budgets have been presented so far. What were the financial priorities changed over the past 73 years? Suno India’s Research and Communications Officer, Kunika Balhotra spoke to Avani Kapur, a Fellow at the Centre for Policy Research (CPR). She is also the Director of the Accountability Initiative (AI). The focus of her work has been in building evidence for policy advocacy to strengthen transparency and accountability in public financial management for service delivery.

Additional Reading
Budget Document 2021
Accountability Initiative Budget Briefs