Tradition-tech marriage continues

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday again took a digital tablet wrapped in a traditional “bahi-khata” style pouch as she headed for Parliament to present the interim Budget 2024-25 in a paperless format just like the previous three years.

She posed for the traditional “briefcase” picture outside her office, along with her team of officials, before heading to meet the President. She was holding a tablet instead of a briefcase to present the Budget in a digital format.

With the tablet carefully kept inside a red cover with a golden-coloured national emblem embossed on it instead of the briefcase, she went straight to Parliament after meeting President Droupadi Murmu at Rashtrapati Bhawan.

Sitharaman, India’s first full-time woman Finance Minister, had in July 2019 ditched the colonial legacy of a Budget briefcase for the traditional “bahi-khata” to carry Union Budget papers. She used the same in the following year, and in a pandemic-hit 2021, she swapped traditional papers with a digital tablet for carrying her speech and other Budget documents.

That tradition has continued on Thursday.

(With agency inputs)