FM Nirmala Sitharaman ditched the colonial tradition of carrying the Budget in a briefcase when she came in with a ‘bahi khata’ to present the key document in 2019. The documents were wrapped in a silk red cloth with the national emblem on top.
RK Shanmukham Chetty presented the first Budget of independent India on November 26, 1947. Chetty had served as India's first finance minister from 1947 to 1948. (Image: News18 Creative)
There have been 73 annual budgets, 14 interim budgets and four special budgets, or mini-budgets since Independence. (Image: News18 Creative)
(Image: News18 Creative)
Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi are the only Prime Ministers who presented a budget. (Image: News18 Creative)
(Image: News18 Creative)
Until 2016, the Budget was presented on the last day of February until Arun Jaitley changed it to February 1 from 2017 onwards. (Image: News18 Creative)
The ‘halwa ceremony’, which marked the commencement for printing the Budget document. As the Budget went paperless, there was no printing last year - the halwa ceremony also took place nine days ahead of the presentation. (Image: News18 Creative)