Nirmala Sitharaman delivers longest ever Budget speech of 2 hours 17 minutes
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The record was previously held by former finance minister Jaswant Singh who took two hours and 13 minutes to present his budget in 2003.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman unveiled India's Budget for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2020, to Parliament on Friday, with that she also gave the longest speech in the budget history by speaking for two hours and seventeen minutes.
The record was previously held by former finance minister Jaswant Singh who took two hours and thirteen minutes to present his budget in 2003.
The longest speech in terms of words, the record is held by former finance minister Manmohan Singh whose speech comprised 18,650 words during his tenure in 1991.
Sitharaman's predecessor, Arun Jaitley holds the record for the second-longest speech, comprising 18,604 words, delivered last year. He is also credited with delivering the second, third and fourth longest budget speeches in 2014, 2017 and 2016, respectively.
The shortest speech comprising 800 words was given by HM Patel in 1977 while delivering the interim Budget.
Country's first full-time woman finance minister, Nirmala Sitharaman today announced a slew of measures in the Budget to boost the economy. The budget proposals were welcomed with frequent thumping of desks by the treasury benches with Prime Minister Narendra Modi too joining the members.
She also won hearts while delivering her maiden speech as she quoted multiple proverbs and couplets in Hindi, Urdu and Tamil languages.