Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman delivered her ninth consecutive Union Budget speech on Sunday, at a time when global geo-economic upheavals weigh on India. While each Budget speech reflects the economic context of its moment, its emphasis and vocabulary also shift over time.
A slew of words have gained prominence in the latest Budget speech. Along with “artificial intelligence“, terms such as “export”, “import”, “trade”, “health” and “medical” have featured frequently, indicating that the government is not only keeping pace with evolving “technology”, but also responding to a shifting global landscape, renewed geo-economic tensions, and persistent health concerns.
At the same time, familiar mainstays such as “farmers”, “tax”, “states” and “development” continue to dominate, underscoring core policy priorities even as new themes emerge.
Using charts, we track how Budget speeches have evolved over the past decade and highlight the key terms and themes that have shaped the last ten speeches.
For the analysis, words used in the same context in the speech were grouped. Variations such as adverbs and plurals have been combined.
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Shifting priorities
The analysis points to a sharp shift and volatility in the prominence of some key terms. For example, the use of words related to poverty declined gradually, but it saw an uptick in the latest budget speech.
Last year, only two such words were mentioned. A steep fall was seen in 2019, and the usage has remained low since then. However, it was mentioned seven times in the latest budget.
In 2016, 22 words were mentioned related to “poverty”, including “poor”, “poverty” and “underprivileged”, followed by 13 instances in 2017.
Surprisingly, usage of “digital” has declined in recent years after peaking at 35 in 2024. In contrast, mentions of “artificial intelligence” surged to a record high this year.
The usage of “reforms” was also high at 14 instances, up from five in 2015. Though it was lower than last year’s, when it peaked at 28.
The constants
Over the past decade, “tax”, “development”, and “schemes” have consistently dominated Budget vocabulary. Tax-related terms appear most frequently, with over 583 mentions in 10 years, followed by “schemes” at around 450.
“Digital” is a relatively recent entrant, mirroring the government’s push towards digitalisation, while “infrastructure” also ranks among the top three frequently used terms. However, mentions of both “digital” and “infrastructure” have declined in recent years.
