Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday presented the Modi 2.0's 1st Full Budget i.e Budget 2019. The Budget speech included micro details of economy and other important details of infra plans. Here are HIGHLIGHTS of Budget 2019 and Nirmala Sitharaman's speech:-

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- Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman: The fiscal deficit this year is 3.3%, brought down from 3.4%

- Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman: At present startups are not required to justify fair market value of their shares issued to certain investors including category 1 alternative investment funds. I propose to extend this benefit to category 2 alternative investment funds also.

- FM Nirmala Sitharaman: I propose to increase special additional excise duty and road and infrastructure cess each one by 1 rupee a litre on petrol and diesel

- Nirmala Sitharaman said, "The recent election was charged with brimming home and desire for a bright and stable 'New India'. Voter turnout was highest; every section came to stamp their approval for performing government."

- "The first term of PM Narendra Modi led NDA govt stood out as a performing govt. Between 2014-2019 he provided a rejuvenated centre-state dynamics, cooperative federalism, GST council and strident commitment to fiscal discipline."

- Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman recites an Urdu couplet - 'Yakeen ho to koi raasta niklata hai, hawa ki ot (protection) bhi le kar chiraag jalta hai'

- "The Indian economy will grow to become a $3 trillion economy in the current year itself. It is now the sixth largest in the world. 5 years ago it was at the 11th position."

- Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman: It took us over 55 years to reach $1 trillion dollar economy. But when the hearts are filled with hope, trust & aspiration, we in just 5 years, added $1 trillion. 

- Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman: Chanakya Neeti sutra says 'Kaarya purusha kare na lakshyam sampa dayate'. This means: With determined human efforts the task will surely be completed. 

- Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman: Schemes such as 'Bharatmala', 'Sagarmala' and UDAN are bridging the rural and urban divide, improving our transport infrastructure 

-  "We don't look down upon legitimate profit earning. Gone are the days of policy paralysis & license quota control regime. India Inc are India's job creators, nation's wealth creators. Together with mutual trust we can gain, catalyse past & attain sustained growth."

- Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman: Comprehensive restructuring of National Highways Programme will be done, to ensure the creation of National Highways Grid of desirable capacity.Government envisions using rivers for cargo transport,it will also decongest roads and railways.

- FM: Launched UDAY in'15 for financial and top turnaround of DISCOMs. We're examining performance&it'll be improved.We'll work with state govts to remove barriers, cross subsidy,surcharges,undesirable duties on open access sales,or captive generation for industrial and bulk power consumers

- Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman: Railway infrastructure would need an investment of Rs 50 lakh crores between 2018 and 2030. PPP to be used to unleash faster development and the delivery of passenger freight services. 

- FM Nirmala Sitharaman: Rs 350 cr allocated for 2% interest subvention for all GST-registered MSMEs on fresh or incremental loans. Pension for shopkeepers & retailers with turnover less than Rs. 1.5 crore to be launched under Pradhan Mantri Karma Yogi Maan Dhan Scheme 

- Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman: Govt will invite suggestions for further opening up of FDI in aviation sector, media, animation AVGC and insurance sectors in consultation with all stakeholders. 100% FDI will be permitted for insurance intermediaries

- Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman: To deepen corporate tri-party repo market in corporate debt securities, govt will work with regulators RBI & SEBI to enable stock exchanges to allow AA rated bonds as collaterals

- Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman: User friendliness of trading platforms for corporate bonds will be reviewed, including issues arising out of capping of International Securities Identification Number 

- Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman: The FAME II scheme aims to encourage faster adoption of electric vehicles by the right incentives and charging infrastructure 

- Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman: It's right time to consider increasing minimum public shareholding in the listed companies, I have asked SEBI to consider raising the current threshold of 25% to 35%. 

- Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman: With the changing economic scenario it's important to upgrade roads connecting villages to rural markets. For this Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana phase 3 is envisaged to upgrade 1,25,000 km of road length over the next 5 years. 

- Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman: India has emerged as a major space power. It is time to harness our ability commercially. To harness India's space ability commercially, a public sector enterprise, New Space India Limited (NSIL) has been incorporated to tap benefits of ISRO

- FM: We'll invest widely in agricultural infrastructure. We'll support private entrepreneurship in driving value addition to farmers produce and those from allied activities too, like bamboo, timber and also for generating renewable energy. Ann daata ko kyun oorja daata bana nahi sakte?

- FM Sitharaman: 9.6 crore toilets have been constructed since Oct 2, 2014. More than 5.6 lakh villages have become open defecation free.We have to build on this success. I propose to expand the Swachh Bharat mission to undertake sustainable sold waste management in every village

- Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman: To provide Non-resident Indians (NRIs) seamless access to Indian equities, NRI portfolio investment route to be merged with foreign portfolio investment route

- Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman: Ensuring India's water security & providing access to safe drinking water to all Indians is a priority. A major step in this direction has been the constitution of Jal Shakti Ministry.

- Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman: This new Ministry will look at the management of our water resources and water supply in an integrated and holistic manner and will work with states to ensure 'Har Ghar Jal', to all rural households by 2024 under 'Jal Jeevan Mission'.

- Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman: Happy and satisfied to report that India will be made Open Defecation Free on October 2nd, 2019, as per the dream of PM Modi

-Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman: I draw attention to the women of India, 'Naari tu Narayaani'. This Government believes that we can progress, with greater women participation. 

- FM: Under PMAY (Urban), over 81 Lakh houses with investment of about Rs 4.83 Lakh Cr have been sanctioned of which construction has started in about 47 Lakh houses. Over 26 Lakh houses have been completed of which nearly 24 Lakh houses have been delivered, to beneficiaries.

- Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman: To give further impetus to India's growing influence and leadership in the international community, Govt decided to open Indian embassies and high commissions in countries where India doesn't have a resident diplomatic mission as 

- Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman: I propose to consider issuing Aadhaar Card for Non Resident Indians (NRIs) with Indian passports after their arrival in India without waiting for the mandatory 180 days.

- Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman: Non-performing asset(NPAs) recovery of Rs 4 lakh crore over the last four years, NPAs down by Rs 1 lakh crore in the last one year

- Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman: To popularise sports at all levels, National Sports Education Board for development of sportspersons to be set up under Khelo India.

- Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman: 'Gandhipedia' is being developed to sensitize the youth about positive Gandhian values 

- FM: The govt intends to open another 4 embassies, new ones, in the year 2019-20. This will not increase the footprint of India's overseas presence but also enable us to provide better and more accessible public services especially to the local Indian communities in these countries.

- Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman: To further encourage women entrepreneurship, women Self Help Group (SHG) Interest Subvention Programme to be expanded to all districts in India

 - Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman: India's sovereign external debt to GDP is among the lowest globally at less than 5%. Govt will start raising a part of its gross borrowing program in external markets in external currencies.

 - Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman: India's sovereign external debt to GDP is among the lowest globally at less than 5%. Govt will start raising a part of its gross borrowing program in external markets in external currencies.

- FM: Govt has been following policy of disinvestment in non-financial public sector undertakings, maintaining govt's stake not to go below 51%.Govt is considering,in case where undertaking is still to be retained in govt control,to go below 51% to an apt level on case to case basis

- FM: Government has already moved GST council to lower the GST rate on electric vehicles(EV) from 12% to 5%. Also to make EVs affordable for consumers our Govt will provide additional income tax deduction of 1.5 lakh rupees on the interest paid on the loans taken to purchase EVs

- Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman: Direct tax collection increased by 78%; Tax collection rose from 6.38 lakh crore rupees in 2013-14 to 11.37 lakh crore rupees in 2018

- FM: More than 120 crore Indians now have Aadhaar card, therefore for ease of tax payers I propose to make PAN card and Aadhaar card interchangeable and allow those who don't have PAN to file returns by simply quoting Aadhar number and use it wherever they require to use PAN

- Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharama: Strategic disinvestment of select Central Public Sector Enterprises will continue to be a priority; strategic disinvestment of Air India will re-initiate; Rs 1 lakh 5 thousand is disinvestment target for 2019-20. 

- FM Sitharaman: As I stated earlier, we have taken a slew of measures to ease burden on small and medium earners. Those having annual income up to Rs 5 lakhs are not required to pay any income tax. We are thankful to tax payers who play an important role in nation building

- Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman: To discourage the practice of making business payments in cash I propose to levy TDS of 2% on cash withdrawal exceeding Rs 1 crore in a year from a bank account

- Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman: To resolve the so-called Angel Tax issue, the startups & their investors who file requisite declarations and provide information in their returns will not be subjected to any kind of scrutiny in respect of valuations of share premiums. 

- Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman: All companies having annual turnover of 400 crores, will now be under the bracket of 25%. This will cover 99.3% of all the companies

- To provide further impetus to affordable housing, additional deduction of 1.5 lakh rupees on interest paid on loans borrowed upto 31 Mar, 2020 for purchase of house up to 45 lakhs : FM

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(This story is being regularly updated)