Nirmala Sitharaman Sets Records with Eighth Budget and Longest Speeches

In her recent presentation to Parliament, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman unveiled the Budget for 2025, marking a significant step in India's economic development. This occasion was her eighth time presenting the central budget, solidifying her position as the female minister with the most budget presentations in the country's history. Nearing the records of political stalwarts like former Prime Minister Morarji Desai, who holds the all-time high with 10 budgets, Sitharaman is also inching closer to the tallies of P. Chidambaram and Pranab Mukherjee. Notably, she continues to set the record for the most consecutive budget presentations under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's leadership.

Among her many accolades, Sitharaman holds the distinction for the longest budget speech in Parliament's history, lasting 2 hours and 42 minutes for the 2020-21 budget. Despite the exhaustive duration, she concluded her speech slightly prematurely due to fatigue, leaving two pages unread. This speech surpassed her previous record of 137 minutes set during the 2019-20 budget announcement, which itself was only second to Jaswant Singh's 135-minute discourse for the 2003-04 budget. In her latest budget for 2024-25, she delivered a comprehensive overview in 86 minutes, marking her shortest speech yet, whereas the most recent budget speech was completed in 74 minutes.