Union Budget 2024 | From longest to shortest, Nirmala Sitharaman's Budget speeches ranked

With a speech clocking in at 85 minutes, the Union Budget 2024-25 speech was Sitharaman's second shortest.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday presented a record seventh consecutive Union Budget 2024, highlighting the Modi govt 3.0’s priorities across multiple sectors.

With a speech clocking in at 85 minutes, this was Sitharaman's second shortest speech.

Incidentally, Sitharaman herself holds the record for the longest-ever budget speech which ran for 162 minutes during the year 2020-21. The title for the longest Budget speech was previously held by Jaswant Singh, followed by Arun Jaitley.

Sitharaman's first Budget speech on July 5, 2019 was 2 hours 17 minutes long while in 2021, she took 1 hour 50 minutes and in 2022, it was 1 hour 32 minutes. The year 2023 saw a speech that lasted 1 hour 27 minutes.

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If one takes the word length, Nirmala’s first speech had 10,965 words followed by 13,349 words, 10,594 words, 9,064 words, 8,167 words and 5,271 words.

However, in terms of words, former Finance Minister and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has the longest budget speech with 18,700 words.

The Budget identified the following areas as priorities: productivity and resilience in agriculture, employment & skilling, inclusive human resource development and social justice, manufacturing & services, urban development, energy security, and infrastructure.

If Sitharaman continues to be Finance Minister till at least 2028 March, she will become the record holder for presenting the Budget, with 11 Budgets to her name. At present, Morarji holds the record at 10, followed by P Chidambaram (9) and Pranab Mukherjee (8) along with Deshmukh and Nirmala (7 each).

Union Budget 2024 LIVE | Making a record for any Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman presented her 7th consecutive Union Budget on July 23, 2024 under the Modi 3.0 government. This Budget brought tax relief for the middle class, while focusing on jobs through skilling, incentivising employers. Track the latest coverage, live news, in-depth opinions, and analysis only on Deccan Herald. Also follow us on WhatsApp, LinkedIn, X, Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram.