Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, set to make history with her eighth consecutive Union Budget, has worked tirelessly with key officials, including Finance Secretary Tuhin Kanta Pandey, to prepare a budget of over Rs 50 lakh crore for FY26.

The Budget will have to address several challenges, including decelerating economic growth, falling value of Rupee against the US dollar and moderation in consumption demand.

The economic growth is estimated to slow to a 4-year low of 6.4 per cent in FY25. This is the lowest growth since the outbreak of the COVID pandemic which hit the world in 2019.

Sithraman, who had steered the Indian economy through many difficult phases, including once-in-a-century pandemic, is again confronted with economic deceleration, moderation in consumption, stagnant private investment, and an uncertain geo-political situation.

On account of various factors, the rupee has plunged to an all-time low of over 86.7 per cent earlier this month.

The team, assisting the Finance Minister to frame Budget proposals for 2025-26, include Revenue Secretary Tuhin Kanta Pandey, Economic Affairs Secretary Ajay Seth, Expenditure Secretary Manoj Govil, Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) Secretary Arunish Chawla, Financial Services Secretary M Nagaraju, and Chief Economic Advisor V Anantha Nageswaran.

The uphill task before the Finance Minister and her team would be to bolster growth without sacrificing fiscal prudence.

The government is also expected to stick to the fiscal glide path of reducing the fiscal deficit to below 4.5 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in FY26 amidst various headwinds.

Finance Secretary and Revenue Secretary Tuhin Kanta Pandey: The oldest hand at the finance ministry who has been involved with the Budget making process since October 2019 when he joined DIPAM as Secretary.

In September last year, Pandey, a 1987-batch IAS officer from Odisha cadre, was appointed the Finance Secretary.

The Finance Ministry has six departments -- Revenue, Economic Affairs, Expenditure, Financial Services, DIPAM and DPE -- and the senior most bureaucrat in the ministry is designated as the Finance Secretary.

He has been credited with divestment of Air India and PSU dividend policy among others during his tenure as DIPAM Secretary.

Before serving as Secretary in the DIPAM, Pandey held many significant positions in the Union government and the Odisha government, in addition to serving a stint in the Regional Office of the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO).

Economic Affairs Secretary, Ajay Seth: The second oldest hand at the finance ministry who has in past handled four Budgets since 2021. The Budget division under his departments anchors the entire Budget making process.

The balance sheet matching between revenue and expenditure and borrowings are all matched by the Budget division under him.

Seth is credited with heading initiatives such as India’s first sovereign green bond issuance, and the creation of the Infrastructure Finance Secretariat.

Ensuring that the economy stays on the fiscal glide path while charting out the new strategy of targeting the debt-to-GDP ratio will be some of the items that will be on top of Seth’s agenda in the upcoming Budget.

Expenditure Secretary Manoj Govil: A 1991-batch IAS officer of Madhya Pradesh cadre, Govil took charge of the Expenditure department in August 2024.

This will be Govil's first stint in Union Budget making and he will have a tough task in giving projections for subsidy in the Budget at a time when rupee is weakening.

DIPAM and Department of Public Enterprises Secretary Arunish Chawla, a 1992-batch Bihar cadre IAS officer, took charge in DIPAM and DPE in December 2024.

Chawla would have his task cut out to drive privatisation of IDBI Bank, move forward with asset monetisation and streamline the functioning of public sector enterprise.

Chawla, a Masters and Doctorate in Economics from the London School of Economics, had served as Joint Secretary in the Department of Expenditure, Ministry of Finance earlier in 2014.

Financial Services Secretary M Nagaraju: A 1993-batch Tripura cadre IAS officer, Nagaraju will have to draw up the roadmap for reforms like FDI cap hike in the insurance sector, deal with rising cyber frauds and further improve the health of the banking sector.

This would be the first brush with Union Budget making as Nagaraju joined as the Financial Services Secretary only in August.

CEA V Anantha Nageswaran: He would be presenting his third Economic Survey a day in advance to Budget 2025-26.

Nageswaran was appointed CEA in January 2022 by the government. Nageswaran, an academic and former executive with Credit Suisse Group AG and Julius Baer Group, succeeded K V Subramanian.

The Economic Survey prepared by CEA is scheduled to be tabled in Parliament on January 31. The survey will give detailed analysis of the state of economy and some of his suggestions to make India Viksit Bharat by 2047.

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