New Delhi, Jan. 28 -- Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman's last three budget speeches were marked by an absence of key figures that had in the past aided in articulating the government's priorities and, sometimes, to justify a long-term goal that posed short term difficulties.

Rabindra Nath Tagore, Kalidas, Shakespeare and other poets who lent a helping hand in the past to the finance ministers of the day, have not made it to budget speeches since 2022.

But at the same time, Sitharaman's speeches have shed the formal tone of some of her predecessors to embrace a more futuristic approach, signalling the medium- and long-term development vision of the NDA government, while echoing the aspirations of people-not just at the macro level, bu...