Meet the Brains Behind India's Union Budget: Key Officials Revealed

• Nirmala Sitharaman, Finance Minister, will present her ninth budget on February 1, having served as FM and Corporate Affairs Minister since 2019.
• Arvind Shrivastava (Revenue Secretary) and Anuradha Thakur (Economic Affairs Secretary) are first-time budget architects, handling taxes and economic administration respectively.
• M Nagaraju (Financial Services Secretary) oversees public sector banks, insurance, and pension institutions, focusing on credit growth and social security.
• Vumlunmang Vualnam (Expenditure Secretary) is the 'guardian of the purse', managing government spending, subsidy rationalisation, and fiscal discipline.
• K Moses Chalai (Public Enterprises Secretary) and Arunish Chawla (DIPAM Secretary) manage capital expenditure, asset monetisation, and the government's disinvestment agenda.

Why It Matters: Key officials, led by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, are set to shape India's upcoming Union Budget.