Union Finance Minister Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman will unveil the second full budget of the Modi 3.0 government on February 1, 2025. In India, a lot of significance is attached to starting any major or important work with something sweet and this tradition is also followed in the days preceding Union Budget presentation.
To celebrate the last phase of the Budget preparation, the Finance Ministry will organize the halwa ceremony that is traditionally held around Republic Day. This event is indeed symbolic and good as it makes a statement that the government is now willing and ready to do the final part of the Budget preparation. This last rite includes the cooking of a huge vessel of homemade halwa, a famous Indian sweet delicacy in the kitchen of the ministry. The Finance Minister herself grinds the halwa in a large vessel, that marks the start of the event, and then serves the hot dish to everyone, especially those involved in preparing the Budget document.
For the involved officials, the ‘lock-in’ commences immediately after the halwa ceremony is done. For the duration of this period, these officials are locked in the North Block, and they have no access to any form of communication, and they can neither use their mobiles. This is with the view to guarding the details of the Budget to prevent the early revelation of the information which is usually presented before the Parliament.
In India, after the halwa ceremony the Budget documents are taken to the press. However, this step is only done after the cleared up by the Prime Minister in his last meeting. To add more strings to the security, the Intelligence Bureau surprises the printer who operates the printing press in the basement of the Finance Ministry and ensures that all the procedures are kept top secret till the Budget is laid in the house.
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