The Union Budget 2015-16, presented by Government of India, has been a path-breaking budget in ways more than one. This was the first budget were ideas were crowd-sourced from citizens directly, using the MyGov platform, and many of the innovative ideas suggested by citizens were actually presented as part of the budget proposals, subsequently passed by the Parliament.

Prime Minister, Narendra Modi himself shared a case study on this unique process of participative decision-making through the official PMO India Twitter handle:

As part of this new, transparent, two-way communication process, the Prime Minister has now written directly to different citizens groups, communicating with them on what is there in the budget for each of these respective groups. To make the development paradigm into a mass movement, the citizens ought to be continuously engaged, before decisions are made and after, and this is an effort in that direction.

These letters were written on 31st March, just before the beginning of the new financial year, and they are appended below.

1. PM's letter to Farmers

    

2. PM's letter to Youth

3. PM's letter to Senior Citizens

4. PM's letter to Small Business Owners

5. PM's letter to Industrial Workers

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Note: This post is in the notes and releases group and therefore it is merely hosting the PM’s letter for wider dissemination.