Sartorial to spending: Green dominates the House during Budget speech

The word 'green' was used by the finance minister 23 times in her 60-plus-minute speech, reinforcing the jungle theme as she moved from thicket to thicket, stumbling occasionally

Rarely, if ever, has ‘green’ dominated saffron in the past nine years. However, green was the principle colour theme, in both Lok Sabha and in the 2023-24 Budget presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday.

Sitharaman was herself in scarlet and black -- a sari with the distinctive stamp of North Karnataka (Ilkal sari with Kasuti embroidery, especially created in 10 days for her by a local weaver who is part of an NGO, Artikrafts). But green was everywhere: From the vibrant green of the pagdi and muffler of Petroleum Minister Hardeep Puri to the dark bottle green worn