Union Budget 2019: Nirmala Sitharaman meets President Kovind ahead of Budget speech

Union Budget 2019: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman called on President Ram Nath Kovind before presenting Union Budget 2019 Friday. The Finance Minister met the President at the Rashtrapati Bhawan before heading to parliament. The copies of the Budget are brought to the parliament complex before Sitharaman arrives in Lok Sabha to present it.

Expectations are running high as Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presents her maiden budget in Lok Sabha today. This will be her first budget under Modi 2.0 government after a thumping win in elections this year. The Finance Minister has her task cut well to fire up the slowing economy by unveiling structural reforms.

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Meanwhile, the biggest challenges facing the economy that is going through a rough patch are dwindling exports, jobless growth, weak domestic consumption, rising NPAs, agri crisis amongst others. What makes the budget 2019 important is that it will serve as a rostrum for the government's vision for the economy for the next five years.

It will be interesting to see how Nirmala Sitharaman proposes to steer the economy at a time when reports suggest that there's been a steep slowdown. The Economic Survey which is traditionally released a day before the Budget mentioned yesterday that the government needs to pump in new investments.

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Keeping in mind the survey and experts' opinion, boosting investments might be a key move of Sitharaman's budget. Dwindling exports, jobless growth, weak domestic consumption, rising NPAs, agri crisis amongst others also continue to plague the economy.

Moreover, in a bid to make her first budget as inclusive as possible, Sitharaman had crowdsourced ideas as well. A month before the Budget, the Finance Minister thanked "scholars, economists and enthusiasts" for sharing their thoughts and ideas on the Budget.

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