New Delhi, January 30: The budget of the central government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be presented in the Lok Sabha on February 1. Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, who is going to create history with the eighth consecutive Union Budget, has worked tirelessly to prepare a Union Budget of more than Rs 50 lakh crore for the financial year 2025-26 along with key officials including Finance Secretary Tuhin Kanta Pandey.
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will have to address many challenges in the Union Budget, including slowdown in economic growth, falling value of rupee against the US dollar and lack of consumption demand.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present the 14th budget of the Modi 3.0 government on Saturday, February 01.
Apart from the Secretary of Economic Affairs and the Chief Economic Advisor of the country under the Ministry of Finance, a whole new team of officials of the ministry is helping Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to prepare the strategy for the upcoming Union Budget. We are telling you about those officials who are closely associated with the process of making the Union Budget.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman:-
Sitharaman will be the first Finance Minister of the country to present the eighth consecutive budget along with an interim budget. Earlier, as Finance Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, Arun Jaitley, P. Chidambaram and Yashwant Sinha have presented five consecutive budgets. Nirmala Sitharaman has studied economics from Jawaharlal Nehru University. Sitharaman is going to present the budget for the financial year 2025-26 at a time when global uncertainty is increasing, domestic demand is sluggish and private investment is yet to pick up pace. In such a situation, it is expected that in this budget the Finance Minister will give some tax relief to the middle class.
Tuhin Kant Pandey (Finance Secretary):-
Finance Secretary Tuhin Kant Pandey has also recently taken over as Revenue Secretary in the Ministry of Finance. Pandey is a 1987 batch Odisha cadre Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer. He worked for more than 5 years after taking charge as Secretary of the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) on October 24, 2019. Pandey is credited with the sale of public sector aviation company Air India, which was stuck for a long time. As DIPAM Secretary, he has also played an important role in bringing Life Insurance Corporation of India to the stock market.
Manoj Govil (Expenditure Secretary):-
Manoj Govil, a 1991 batch IAS officer of Madhya Pradesh cadre, has been the Expenditure Secretary in the Ministry of Finance since August 2024. Prior to this, he was in the post of Secretary in the Ministry of Corporate Affairs. During his tenure of more than three decades, he has been the Principal Secretary in-charge of Finance and Commercial Tax in the Madhya Pradesh government. As Expenditure Secretary, Govil will hold many responsibilities apart from approving new schemes, preparing expenditure guidelines and transfer of resources to the states.
Ajay Seth (DEA Secretary):-
1987 Karnataka batch IAS officer Ajay Seth has been the Secretary of the Department of Economic Affairs (DEA), Ministry of Finance since April 2021. The DEA Secretary plays an important role in the process of making the Union Budget. These include fiscal planning, inter-ministerial coordination and policy making. Seth is credited with initiating India’s first sovereign green bond issue and the creation of the Infrastructure Finance Secretariat.
Arunish Chawla (DIPAM Secretary):-
1992 batch Bihar cadre IAS officer Arunish Chawla has been the Secretary of the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) since January 8 after being the Revenue Secretary for 15 days. Chawla is also temporarily holding charge in the Department of Public Enterprises and the Ministry of Culture. As DIPAM secretary, Chawla is looking after several other government initiatives including disinvestment, monetisation and sale of IDBI Bank.
M. Nagaraju (Secretary, Department of Financial Services):-
M. Nagaraju, a 1993 batch IAS officer of Tripura cadre, was appointed as Secretary in the Department of Financial Services, Ministry of Finance on August 19, 2024. Nagaraju will be one of the key persons advising the Finance Minister in this budget on regulation of fintech, financial inclusion and creation of digital financial infrastructure. He has previously held the posts of Secretary to Principal Secretary in important departments like Health, Women and Child Development, Finance, Commerce and Industry. Nagaraju has also worked as an advisor to the Executive Director of the World Bank in Washington between 2008 and 2012.
V. Anantha. Nageswaran (CEA):-
The country’s Chief Economic Advisor V Anantha Nageswaran (CEA) is a writer and teacher. He is one of the closest advisors to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. He plays a key role in preparing the macroeconomic background of the Union Budget, on the basis of which budget targets are set and the budget speech is written. The CEA, along with his team of economists, writes the Economic Review, which is to be tabled in Parliament on January 31, a day before the budget is presented. Nageshwaran’s 3-year term is going to end this financial year. Nageshwaran has an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad and a doctorate from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
