The making of 2013 Union Budget: a sneak peek

Into the world of budgetary customs, its preparation, presentation and impregnable security

GN Bureau | February 28, 2013



Finance minister P Chidambaram will begin the day with a visit to president Pranab Mukherjee to seek his permission to present the union budget 2013 in parliament. This is a customary protocol as the president is the final authority on consolidated funds and is the keeper of economy.

At 1015 hours, when Chidambaram enters the gate number one of parliament, he will pose for 300 to 400 TV and still cameras along with his two union ministers of state Namo Narain Meena and SS Palanimanickam.

Chidambaram will certainly miss the guidance and presence of Pranab Mukherjee at 1045 hours when he opens the 2013 budget secrets before 34 of his cabinet colleagues. Of course, prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh knows the contents of the budgetary proposals.

Immediately after this, Chidambaram will walk into the Lok Sabha accompanied by Kamal Nath and other senior ministers to present the last budget of the UPA.

This will be Chidambaram’s 8th budget in parliament. And he tells close friends that he owes this to his Sivaganga voters who reposed faith in him for a record seven times.

Chidambaram has issued an affectionate gag order to his family members. They are supposed to give no interviews to print or TV channels about his budget. However, he has allowed his 12-year-old granddaughter to join other family members to watch him present the budget from the visitors’ gallery.

The credit for maintaining the secrecy of budgetary proposal goes to Asif Ibrahim who led a 235-member team for the job.  Ibrahim is director, Intelligence Bureau.

According to colleagues, Ibrahim, for the past two days, has been visiting the printing press many a time and monitoring four key officials who wrote and read the contents of the 2013 budget. 

MoS SS Palanimanickam is the only union minister who has continued without a break as the minister for revenue since 2004. He has so far posed ten times for the group photos outside North Block when two finance ministers, P Chidambaram and Pranab Mukherjee, went from North Block to parliament to present their budgets.

Palanimanickam is a DMK nominee in Dr Manmohan Singh council of ministers.

 

Comments

 

Other News

Gandhian movement after Gandhi failed: Ram Guha

The Gandhian movement in India, after Gandhi’s death, failed, says Ramachandra Guha, and blames Vinoba Bhave for it. But the movement found new, fertile grounds around the world and succeeded in bringing about a change in South Africa, the US and elsewhere. It is high time it returned home. Of cour

When religion, politics and Bollywood come together

Tavleen Singh, noted journalist and political commentator, has turned to fiction, with her debut novel ‘The Actor’ (HaperCollins India). Set in the near future, it has a superstar, Amit Singh, turning to politics, when the political landscape is dominated by prime minister Guru Gaynendraj

Cabinet approves setting up of Integrated Transport & Logistics Authority

The union cabinet, chaired by prime minister Narendra Modi, on Tuesday approved the setting up of a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV), called Integrated Transport & Logistics Authority (ITLA), to strengthen research, planning, appraisal, monitoring and impact assessment within the broad domains of Transp

Why foundational literacy and numeracy is key to school education

Foundational Literacy and Numeracy (FLN) are often described as the building blocks of education. Yet, their significance goes well beyond a child’s ability to read a sentence, write a response or solve a basic mathematical problem. These foundational skills shape how children understand the world,

When police data becomes the algorithm

For decades, policing has followed a familiar sequence: a crime occurs, the police respond, an investigation produces records and those records become part of the institutional memory of the criminal justice system. Artificial intelligence is beginning to alter that sequence. Instead of merely recording

Before India voted, the framers worried about the referee

“We are making a Constitution forever and not only for today.” Shibban Lal Saksena said this in the Constituent Assembly on June 15, 1949. He was warning that a ruling party might one day choose a loyalist to run India’s elections. Seventy-seven years later, the Supreme Court is wrestli

Upcoming Conferences



-->

Archives

Current Issue

Opinion

Facebook Twitter Google Plus Linkedin Subscribe Newsletter

Twitter