Nirmala Sitharaman's Union Budget 2026 War-Room: Key Players Revealed

• Nirmala Sitharaman is set to present her ninth consecutive Union Budget on February 1, 2026, a record for a Finance Minister under the same Prime Minister.
• The core team includes holdovers like CBDT Chairman Ravi Agrawal, DIPAM Secretary Arunish Chawla, Financial Services Secretary M Nagaraju, and Chief Economic Adviser V Anantha Nageswaran.
• New key secretaries who took charge last year are Vumlunmang Vualnam (Expenditure), Arvind Srivastava (Revenue), and Anuradha Thakur (Economic Affairs).
• Anuradha Thakur, a 1994-batch IAS officer, is the main architect of the Budget, heading the Department of Economic Affairs and responsible for preparing documents and macroeconomic policy.
• Arvind Srivastava (Revenue Secretary) handles tax proposals, Vumlunmang Vualnam (Expenditure Secretary) supervises government spending, and M Nagaraju (Financial Services Secretary) manages financial inclusion and health of banks/insurance.

Why It Matters: Nirmala Sitharaman's Budget 2026 team comprises experienced and new secretaries crucial for its formulation.