Did you know that till 2000, the Union Budget was announced at 5 pm on the last working day of the month of February? In 2001,the then finance minister Yashwant Sinha changed the ritual by announcing the budget at 11 am.
So where will you be at 11 am tomorrow? Most likely at work. Various sites will be streaming the budget live so you need not fear of missing out.
iStream.com will be live streaming the Union Budget 2013, along with breaking news, special reports and analysis from nearly 20 major news networks, including business networks like CNBC TV18, ET Now, CNBC Awaaz and news channels like Times Now, CNN IBN and Headlines Today. It will be available on http://www.istream.com/budget-2013.
The iStream.com Budget 2013 page will also have social-media integration, so viewers can live-tweet their reactions and read comments made by fellow viewers without leaving the page.
iStream.com had raised $5 million in 2011 from global private equity fund SAIF Partners, and has been creating special channels for events like the UEFA Euro 2012 and the India-Sri Lanka cricket series.
Other Sites to catch the live stream
The Indian government is also providing a live feed on their website. Apart from iStream, most business news channels will also be providing a live feed on their respective websites. You can catch the feeds from: CNBC TV18 | NDTV 24×7 | ET NOW.
Finance Minister to host Google+ Hangout
As part of its efforts to use the Internet for conversations with policymakers, Google is hosting a Google+ Hangout with Finance Minister P Chidambaram, on Google+ to discuss the Union Budget on March 4, 2013.
The finance minister will to respond to citizens’ questions about the Budget, and discuss the state of the Indian economy with a panel of industry leaders as well as citizens.
The event page can be found here. The hangout will start at 8:00 p.m. IST on March 4. Also present on the hangout will be Jahangir Aziz, senior Asia economist and India chief economist, JP Morgan, Anand Mahindra, chairman and managing director of Mahindra & Mahindra, and Amit Singhal, senior vice president, Google Inc.
Users can ask Mr. Chidambaram a question, by heading to the InConversation YouTube channel or the Google India +Page, where one can submit your question in the form of a video or as a comment.
The Budget will also be live streamed on February 28th on the YouTube page.
