Sitharaman to Present Ninth Union Budget on Feb 1, 2026

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present the Union Budget for the 2026-27 financial year on February 1, 2026, marking her ninth consecutive budget speech in Parliament. The presentation, set for a Sunday in the Lok Sabha, comes amid India's robust 7.4 percent economic growth rate and persistent global geopolitical uncertainties, as the government seeks to balance fiscal discipline with reforms to sustain momentum.

Sitharaman, who has served as India's Finance Minister since 2019 under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's administration, will deliver this budget during the third full term of the Modi-led government, following an interim budget in early 2024. Her upcoming speech will position her just one short of the record for the most budgets presented by any individual, held by former Prime Minister Morarji Desai with 10 across his tenures from 1959 to 1969. Other notable figures include P. Chidambaram with nine budgets and Pranab Mukherjee with eight. As the longest-serving female Finance Minister in an uninterrupted stretch, Sitharaman also holds the record for the longest budget speech, which lasted two hours and 40 minutes in 2020.

The Union Budget, mandated by Article...