Nirmala Sitharaman presents Interim Budget in just 58-minute address

Interim Budget 2024: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the Interim Budget 2024-25 in Parliament on Thursday, delivering a succinct 58-minute speech that marked her sixth budget presentation. Commencing at 11 am, Nirmala Sitharaman's address concluded at 11:58 am, encapsulating key fiscal plans for the upcoming financial year.

This budget assumes heightened significance as it represents the last one in the second term of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, with the 17th Lok Sabha's tenure concluding on June 16, 2024, and the Lok Sabha elections scheduled for April or May this year.

Notably, Nirmala Sitharaman, in the realm of budget presentations, holds the record for the longest speech in the country's history. In 2022, she delivered an extensive speech lasting 2 hours and 42 minutes, surpassing her own record set in 2021 of 2 hours and 17 minutes. 

In terms of historical comparisons, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh delivered the longest budget speech in 1991, consisting of 18,650 words, during a period of economic challenges. Singh's historic speech played a pivotal role in reviving the Indian economy during those tough times.

Conversely, the shortest budget speech on record was by former Finance Minister Hirubhai Mulljibhai Patel in 1977. Patel delivered a brief Union Budget speech, consisting of only 800 words, with the specific duration of the speech not recorded.

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