Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present the Union Budget 2021 on February 1. This budget will be one of the most important budgets of all time as it comes at a time when the economy is trying to come out of blows served by Covid 19 pandemic and the finance minister has set the expectations high with her remarks that the budget will be historical and one like never before.  As Nirmala Sitharaman presents the Budget for 2021, there are three interesting questions about the Union Budget that everyone would want to know.

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1 When was the first Union Budget presented?  
Well, the answer is November 26, 1947. It was tabled by the first Finance Minister of independent India R K Shanmukham Chetty. Chetty served as the first finance minister of Independent India from 1947 to 1949.  TT Krishnamachari, who was finance minister from 1957-1958, presented the first mini-budget on November 30, 1956. In a five-thousand-word speech, he described the changed economic situation and underlined the need to levy fresh taxes even before the next budget was presented.

2 Why is Union Budget presented in English language and not in Hindi
There is a very simple and logical answer to this question. According to the eighth schedule of the Indian constitution, there are a total of 22 scheduled languages that are widely spoken in different states. As there are so many languages and every state is free to use its own official language, most of the parliamentarian are comfortable with English as it is known to most of them. Apparently, the microphone made available to each member of parliament can also translate English to Hindi for their convenience.  

3. What does Finance Minister carry in the briefcase?
Over the years, we have seen finance ministers carrying a red-colour briefcase on the budget day. This 'budget briefcase' actually contains the printed budget speech. This tradition of carrying out red coloured bag to present budget finds its root to 1860, when William Ewart Gladstone was the Chancellor of the Exchequer in Great Britain. He was notorious for presenting very long budget speeches which lasted 5 to 6 hours. Some finance ministers like Jawaharlal Nehru, Manmohan Singh and Yashwant Sinha carried a black briefcase.