Nirmala Sitharaman goes paperless, uses tablet to present Budget 2021

Nirmala Sitharaman had replaced the tradition of presenting the budget in a leather briefcase in 2019 with a traditional 'bahi-khata.'

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the Budget 2021 on Monday through a tablet.This is the first time that the budget has gone paperless and has been presented online. In the year 2019, the Finance Minister had replaced the tradition of presenting the budget in a leather briefcase with a traditional 'bahi-khata.'

Ms Sitharaman was seen carrying a tablet covered in a red cloth with a golden coloured national emblem embossed on it as she delivered her third budget. This is being seen as a move to push forward the 'Digital India' mission.

Ms Sitharaman had launched the "Union Budget Mobile App" so that MPs and the general public could access the documents easily. She said it was important to shed the "British hangover" as former finance ministers had always carried briefcases to the Lok Sabha which is a British tradition.