Sitharaman interacts with 30 students who witnessed Budget live

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, on Sunday, interacted with 30 university students who witnessed the session live in Parliament from the Lok Sabha gallery during the presentation of the Union Budget 2026-27. She described the interaction as a departure from the usual practice of giving interviews to newspapers and television studios after the Budget presentation. Speaking at the Youth Dialogue on Budget 2026, Sitharaman said the idea came from her team, who suggested taking a different approach this time. "This time my team thought of doing something out of the ordinary, saying, "You go after presenting the budget to each one of the studios or each one of the newspapers and give them inter." she said.Sitharaman also spoke about the efforts that are being made to ensure a "better India" for students while drawing a contrast with the India she grew up in.

Self-confidence is something you have to assess in yourself - and not underestimate. Nothing is impossible for someone who is self-confident. But it should not turn into overconfidence.

If every Indian becomes confident about doing things, imagine where this country would be.

-… pic.twitter.com/hTXBTq06EW

— Nirmala Sitharaman Office (@nsitharamanoffc) February 1, 2026

Clarifying that she does not think that everything in the past can be perceived as negative, the Finance Minister added, “I’m not saying everything which happened in the past is bad, but because of the way in which economies grew after coming out of imperialism, our pace of growth, our type of growth, and our type of governance made it delayed. Everything was delayed.”