Meet Nirmalaji's Core Budget Team

The finance minister continues to be backed by the same policy team in charting out the broad strategy as in the few earlier Budgets.

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday will present the first Budget of the newly elected National Democratic Alliance government.

Sitharaman presented her first Budget in July 2019 after the Bharatiya Janata Party returned to power.

The July 23 Budget, coming after the general elections, will be watched for coalition compulsions, electoral lessons, and how the government decides to use the fiscal headroom with a bumper dividend of Rs 2.1 trillion received from the Reserve Bank of India.

Nirmala Sitharaman

Sitharaman will be the first finance minister in the history of India to present a seventh consecutive Budget, including one Interim Budget.

She will be breaking the record of Morarji Desai, who presented six consecutive Budgets.

Manmohan Singh, Arun Jaitley, P Chidambaram, and Yashwant Sinha had presented five Budgets in a row.

The Budget is expected to focus on job creation and economic growth while ensuring that the government sticks to the fiscal glide path.

President Droupadi Murmu, in her address to the joint sitting of Parliament, had said that the Centre would take historic steps in the Budget.

Sitharaman and Prime Minister Narendra D Modi too have said the government policy would focus on the youth, women, farmers and the poor.

The Budget is expected to announce measures to boost the rural economy and social-sector schemes.

Sitharaman, who studied economics at Jawaharlal Nehru University, held the commerce and defence portfolios in the NDA s 2014-2019 term in power.

It was during her time as defence minister in 2019 that the Balakot airstrike was carried out in Pakistan.

Sitharaman is a member of the Rajya Sabha, representing Karnataka.

Dr T V Somanathan

The senior-most bureaucrat among all secretaries in the finance ministry is also an important link for Budget-related discussions with the prime minister s office.

A veteran in the Budget-making exercise, Dr Somanathan became expenditure secretary in the finance ministry in 2019 and was designated finance secretary in 2021.

A 1987-batch Indian Administrative Service officer of the Tamil Nadu cadre, Dr Somanathan worked in the PMO from April 2015 to August 2017.

The bureaucrat also played a major role in the 2021-2022 Budget, which ended the practice of borrowing money outside the Budget.

This was an effort to make the balance sheets of the central government more transparent.

As finance secretary, Dr Somanathan is expected to find resources to meet the demands of the coalition partners without compromising on fiscal rectitude.

A PhD in economics, the finance secretary has a great hold on the subject, and has published more than 80 papers and articles. He has written two books.

Somanathan also served as joint secretary in the Ministry of Corporate Affairs and worked as director at the World Bank, Washington DC, on deputation.

Ajay Seth

A 1987 batch IAS officer from the Karnataka cadre, Seth is secretary to the Department of Economic Affairs.

He plays a crucial role in Budget making, including inter-ministerial coordination for demands for grants and drafting the Budget documents.

Seth, who was managing director, Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation, is also credited with heading initiatives such as India s first sovereign green bond issuance and the creation of the Infrastructure Finance Secretariat.

Tuhin Kanta Pandey

As secretary to the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (Dipam), Pandey is responsible for finalising the targets for disinvestment and resource mobilisation through dividends of public-sector enterprises.

The government has done away with a separate divestment target from the Interim Budget for FY25, presented in February.

It has instead clubbed receipts from divestment, asset monetisation, and other capital receipts not classified elsewhere under the miscellaneous capital receipts .

Also a 1987-batch of the IAS from the Odisha cadre, Pandey is credited with concluding the long-pending sale of Air India and was instrumental in taking the Life Insurance Corporation of India public.

This Budget is expected to give some cues on government plans on privatisation, given the role of coalition partner in the process.

The sale of the government stake in IDBI Bank, a process initiated two years ago, is expected to be concluded this financial year.

Sanjay Malhotra

As revenue secretary, Malhotra sets revenue-receipt targets and decides on tax changes, both on direct and indirect taxes, including through the Finance Bill.

A 1990-batch IAS officer from the Rajasthan cadre, Malhotra has taken a conservative approach to setting revenue targets.

Malhotra is responsible for creating a revenue-neutral tax structure and plays a pivotal role in converging the interests of states and the Centre at the GST Council meetings.

Dr Vivek Joshi

Dr Vivek Joshi is one of the newest entrants to the finance minister's Budget team, having joined the finance ministry in November 2022 as secretary to the Department of Financial Services, which is responsible in devising policy changes in the fields of banking, insurance, and pension.

A 1989-batch IAS officer from the Haryana cadre, Dr Joshi is expected to push through the long-pending amendments to the insurance law.

However, the proposal to privatise two public-sector banks and one general insurance firm may not see much headway.

Joshi holds a doctorate in international economics from the University of Geneva.

Before being appointed financial services secretary, he was registrar general and the census commissioner of India.

Dr V Anantha Nageswaran

Dr Nageswaran, as chief economic advisor (CEA), sets the macro-economic backdrop domestic and global under which the Budget targets are set and the Budget speech is written.

The CEA, with his team of economists, authors the Economic Survey, which was presented the day before the Budget.

Dr Nageswaran, who took charge in 2022, has an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management- Ahmedabad, and holds a doctorate from the Isenberg School of Management, UMass Amherst.

Feature Presentation: Aslam Hunani/Rediff.com