Nirmala Sitharaman's daughter Vangmayi Parakala and several relatives watched from the visitor gallery in Lok Sabha as the Finance minister presented the Union Budget for 2023-24 on Wednesday. The gallery was packed as the last full-fledged budget of the second Narendra Modi government was presented.
Joining the Sitharaman's daughter were Railways minister Ashwini Vaishnaw and other Rajya Sabha members who were seen taking notes as various proposals were announced.
This wasn't Parakala Vangmayi's first time witnessing the Budget session. She had accompanied her mother to the parliament for Union Budget 2020 as well. She is a feature writer with Mint Lounge and was formerly with The Hindu.
Delhi: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's family including her daughter Parakala Vangmayi arrive in Parliament. Budget2020?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Budget2020 pic.twitter.com/Pcm6Uc746j— ANI (@ANI) February 1, 2020
Among some of the notable announcements made for the "common man" during this Union Budget speech, Nirmala Sitharaman announced the setting up of a national digital library for children and adolescents for facilitating the availability of quality books across the country.
"National digital library for children and adolescents will be set up for facilitating the availability of quality books across geographies, languages, genres and levels, and device agnostic accessibility," Sitharaman said.
"States will be encouraged to set up libraries for them (children) at panchayat and ward levels and provide infrastructure for accessing the national digital library's sources."
Additionally, to build a culture of reading, and to make up for pandemic-time learning loss, the National Book Trust, the Children's Book Trust, and other sources would be encouraged to provide and replenish non-curricular titles in regional languages and in English to physical libraries, the minister added.
(With inputs from PTI)
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