India's First Budget: From Scottish Economist to Digital Era

• India's first budget was presented on April 7, 1860, by Scottish economist James Wilson during British rule.
• Post-independence, India's first annual budget was presented on February 28, 1948, by R.K. Shanmukham Chetty.
• The Union Budget was traditionally presented at 5 PM until 1999, when Yashwant Sinha changed the time to 11 AM.
• Nirmala Sitharaman holds the record for the longest budget speech by duration (2 hours 42 minutes in 2020-21) and most consecutive budgets (seven by 2024).
• Morarji Desai holds the record for presenting the most budgets (11), while the 2021-22 budget was India's first fully digital budget.

Why It Matters: India's budget tradition began in 1860 and has evolved significantly, from colonial origins to digital presentation.