There was a time when the Indian Union Budget, presented to Parliament, was eagerly awaited by the nation with bated breath. That was a bygone era, when the Finance Minister not only read out statements of accounts and outlays but also charted the broader economic trajectory of the country. However, with the reorientation of the Indian economy and its embrace of a liberal economic model, moving away from the earlier socialist framework, the Union Budget appears to have lost some of its earlier resonance.
This structural shift in India’s economic orientation was, in fact, a forced reactionary adjustment, accelerated by external imperatives—namely the collapse of the Soviet Union, New Delhi’s principal benefactor at the time. Yet, in recent years, the Union Budget has continued to find significant relevance when it comes to shaping pertinent aspects of India’s foreign policy. This influence is not limited to attracting external economic partners in the form of investments and trade, but also extends into other dimensions of statecraft.