Mumbai, February 1:  Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present the Union Budget 2021 in the Parliament with her Made-in-India tab today. This will be India's first digital Budget.  This will be Sitharaman's third Budget and she will be presenting at a time when the country's economy is recovering from the impact of COVID-19.

In 2020, when the country was struggling with the lockdown, FM had announced a slew of economic packages and relief measures. So this means that FM is now left with a limited fiscal room.Union Budget 2021 Goes Digital! Tab Replaces Traditional 'Bahi Khata' as Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman Gets Set to Present First Paperless Budget in Parliament Today.

Here are some interesting facts about Union Budget 2021:

  • The word 'budget' is derived from the word ‘bougette’ which means small bag in French.

  • James Wison presented the first-ever Indian Budget during its colonial era

  • Morarji Desai is the only Prime Minister to present the highest number of Union Budgets in the parliament, which is 10 in total.

  • Earlier the Budget was presented at 5 pm on the last working day of February, it was later changed to 11 am on the first day of February.

  • The budget used to be published only in English until 1955. Later, the government started to publish it in Hindi as well.

  •  Indira Gandhi was the first woman to present the budget of independent India. However, Nirmala Sitharaman in 2019 became the first full-time woman finance minister of India to present the budget of the country.

  • Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, in a first in India’s history, the Budget will be entirely paperless this time, i.e. it won’t be printed and all MPs and government officials will have to use soft copies.

  • The budget briefcase was replaced with a bahi khata in 2019.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Feb 01, 2021 10:29 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).