SunstarTV Bureau: Prime Minister Narendra Modi is all set to chair an all-party meeting via video conferencing on January 30.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi to chair an all-party meeting, that has been called on 30th January ahead of Budget Session of the Parliament. The meeting will be held via video-conferencing. pic.twitter.com/TuozDSOhXz
— ANI (@ANI) January 20, 2021
Along with this an NDA (National Democratic Alliance) is also scheduled to be held on same day. Meanwhile, Nirmala Sitharaman held the pre-budget meeting with Finance Ministers of all States and Union Territories on Monday morning via video conferencing.
The Union Budget for the fiscal year 2021-22 assumes greater significance as the Centre aims to at a faster turnaround in the economy after the steep decline owing to the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdown. India, which had in 2019 overtaken the UK to become the fifth-largest economy in the world, was knocked off course, due to the lockdown. The rate of GDP growth sank to a more than 10-year low of 4.2 per cent in 2019, down from 6.1 per cent the previous year.
The Finance Ministry has decided to do away with the age-old tradition of printing the budget copies this year in view of the Coronavirus pandemic. This is the first time since independence, that the budget will be paperless. However, giving the entire process a digital push, the government has decided to provide soft copies of the budget to the lawmakers. Also, the traditional Halwa ceremony will be hosted 10 days prior to the presentation of Budget in the Parliament. In the Budget session, this time, question hour and zero hour will make a comeback after it was scrapped due to COVID 19 precaution.
