The Budget is being made in the context of an economy that is rapidly recovering from the effects of the pandemic to one which could now be back to pre-Covid levels, Finance Secretary T V Somanathan told Shrimi Choudhary in an exclusive interaction. Somanathan spoke about the implications of the Cairn settlement, disinvestment target, LIC IPO, fertiliser subsidy and more.

       Edited excerpts: What’s going to be the theme of the upcoming Union Budget? I can't talk about the theme as it has to be picked by the government as a whole not by the finance secretary. I can tell you ...