An official said that people in the government were aware of the benefits as well as the drawbacks of issuing overseas sovereign bonds, and there will be consultations with all stakeholders.

Owing to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman being new to her role, a number of crucial announcements in the Budget bore Garg's imprint, especially the decision to borrow in overseas markets, reduce the fiscal deficit as a percentage of gross domestic product, and resort to off-Budget borrowing to meet that target, says Arup Roychoudury.

The bonds will likely be simultaneously launched in major financial centres such as London, Singapore, Hong Kong, New York for a term of no less than 20 years.

Sources in the know said the government would initiate talks with businesses, including Tatas, shortly for divesting its stake in the national carrier.

The divestment target remaining unchanged, from the 2019-20 interim Budget, this year means the Centre will now have to depend on non-tax revenue sources like dividends from the RBI, PSBs and PSUs, as there are real concerns of a tax revenue shortfall. The fiscal deficit target of 3.4% of GDP for 2019-20 is likely to be retained as well.

It was 55.3 per cent for the same period last year, and data shows the fiscal deficit for April-May was kept in reasonable check in spite of heavy frontloading of expenditure.

The government is planning to liberalise the terms and conditions for the sale of the national carrier. The Centre is still pursuing the option of selling the airline's subsidiaries before the airline itself, in order to deal with an outstanding debt of around Rs 27,000 crore.

Budget-makers in North Block are looking to maintain this fiscal status quo, in spite of tax revenues nowhere close to where the government wants and in spite of possible higher expenditure commitments.

Concerned by GDP slowdown and unrealistic tax targets, the economists urged Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to implement long-term structural steps like land and labour reforms. Warning against any off-Budget financing the economists said the government should prepare a statement of intent for its social, rural and welfare sector expenditure.

This is not her first stint in North Block or in leading a major economic ministry. She started Prime Minister Narendra Modi's first term as minister of state for finance, was made the commerce minister, and then became the defence minister.

BJP banks on Modi, Congress on its candidate Manvendra Singh in Barmer, India's largest constituency by area after Ladakh.

Government officials were struggling to understand why the lenders denied emergency funds even after giving verbal assurances on providing Rs 1,200 crore.

RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das and Finance Secretary Subhash Chandra Garg are also expected to attend the meetings.

A report said that India accounts for almost one-fourth of the total groundwater extracted globally, more than that of China and US combined thus using the largest amount of groundwater, around 24 per cent of the global total.

108 economists, social scientists said it was imperative that agencies like CSO and NSSO are not subject to political interference.

'They will keep him there for quite some time.' 'There are no easy options.' 'It won't be unusual for a foreign power to intervene and get him released after some time, but not immediately.'

Not only is there a possibility for a conventional retaliation by Pakistan, there could also be terror attacks.

The decision to scrap the plan for landless workers and focus only on small and marginal farmers was made as there was no proper method to find out who qualify as landless labourers.

The combined fertiliser, food and petroleum subsidy budgeted estimate for FY19 is Rs 2.64 trillion, while the revised estimate is Rs 2.66 trillion. If the carrying forward to FY20 does not happen, the revised estimates for the major subsidies could actually cross Rs 3 trillion for the first time ever.

General Budget is a terminology earlier used to differentiate between the Union Budget with the Railway Budget. Full-fledged budgets are titled "Union Budget", while interim Budgets are titled just that.