Budget 2019 allocations: Railways gets the top billing

Nirmala Sitharaman, India's first full-time female finance minister, delieverd her maiden budget speech today. Amid hits and misses with regard to schemes and taxation, Sitharaman managed to touch upon a wide spectrum of sectors and policies attached to them.

Pre-Budget speculations about the allocation of funds to different departments was a hot topic of discussion for industry experts. As the D-Day draws to a close, we take a look at the top 10 sectoral budgetary allocations, placing them alongside their allocations for the past 5 years.

Railways, the highest of the lot, was allocated Rs 3,57,576 crore, 10.51% higher than its allocation in 2018-19 which stood at Rs 3,23,558 crore. Defence came next with an allocation of Rs 305,296 cr, up by 6.9% as compared to last year's Rs 285,423 crore.

Agriculture and Allies Services, with an allocation of Rs 1,51,518 crore saw a massive leap of 74.96% from its budgetary allocation of Rs 86,602 crore.

Education, Health, subsidy, IT and Urban development saw a considerable upgrade from last year's allocation as well - Education (13.43%), Health (16.18%), Subsidy (13.33%), IT and Telecom (33.79%), Urban Development (11.79%).

The Energy sector recorded a downgrade - down by 3.28% - from Rs 46,150 crore in the last financial year to Rs 44,638 crore this year.