Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday asserted that the BJP-led government at the Centre has worked with an approach to development that is "all-round, all-inclusive and all-pervasive" ('sarvangin', 'sarvasparshi' and 'sarvasamaveshi') and said that the trinity of "Democracy, Demography and Diversity" can help fulfil the aspirations of every Indian.

       Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman while presenting her sixth Budget ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, said that the Indian economy has witnessed a profound positive transformation in the last 10 years.

       "The next five years will be the years of unprecedented development. Trinity of democracy, demography and diversity can help fulfil the aspirations of every Indian. The Indian economy has witnessed a profound positive transformation in the last 10 years, The people of India are looking ahead to the future with hope and optimism," the Finance Minister said in her budget speech.

       Stating that her government's vision of development covers all castes and people at all levels, Sitharaman said the aim is to make India a 'Viksit Bharat' (Developed Bharat) by 2047.

       "As our Prime Minister firmly believes, we need to focus on four major castes, they are gareeb (poor), mahilayein (women), yuva (youth) and annadata (farmers). Their needs, their aspirations and their welfare are our highest priority," Finance Minister said while stating that the main focus of the Interim Budget stands on four pillars.

       Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman expressed hope that the good policies and the work done by the Central government will help the BJP return to power for the third consecutive time in a row.

       The Interim Budget 2024 was approved by Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi earlier in the day.

       Meanwhile, Union Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal said, "It is an important day."

       In his customary media briefing ahead of the Budget session, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said his government will "follow tradition" and the full Budget will be presented only after the formation of new government.

       Here is how the opposition leaders are reacting to the interim budget:

       On Interim Budget 2024-25, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor says, "It was one of the shortest speeches on record in the Budget. Not very much came out of it. As usual a lot of rhetorical language, very little concrete on implementation...She talked about foreign investment without acknowledging that that investment has come down significantly. She talked about a number of things which are couched in vague language like 'confidence' and 'hope' and so on. But when it comes to hard figures, very few figures available...This is going to be a very disappointing speech in terms of being couched entirely in generalities and without enough substance nor any willingness to address the specific problems of the economy..."

       On interim Budget 2024, Congress MP Manish Tewari says, "It is a 'vote-on-account' which has only one purpose to keep the government solvent for the first quarter of the current fiscal year. What's worrying is that

       there is a budget deficit of ？18 lakh crores. This means that the government is borrowing for its expenditure. This number is only going to increase next year."