India’s Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman chose to ditch the “colonial” briefcase while presenting her maiden budget to parliament.
Ms Sitharaman, instead, carried a bright red traditional ledger known as bahi-khata in Hindi.
Her chief economic adviser Krishnamurthy Subramanian said it symbolised a “departure from the slavery of western thought”.
This is the first budget of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s second term. Read more