India, Feb. 1 -- Boosting spending of the middle class and reaching out to the aggrieved salaried group with a big announcement by exempting tax on income of upto Rs 12 lakh, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the Union Budget 2025 with a focus on encouraging private investment, assuaging the middle-income constituency and strengthening growth.

Amid high food inflation and shrinking disposable incomes that affected the country's growth story, the FM, who has been accused of unleashing tax terrorism earlier, announced transformative reform in taxation while addressing farmers, the poor and youth besides women.

From sporting a Madhubani saree to mentioning Bihar again and again in the budget speech in the first part, the ...