Nirmala Sitharaman, Union Finance Minister, chaired the ninth pre-Budget consultation with 17 tourism and hospitality stakeholders in New Delhi. The meeting, also attended by Pankaj Chaudhary, MoS, Finance; Secretaries of the Department of Economic Affairs and Ministry of Tourism, and the Chief Economic Adviser, is being hailed as a significant step, with the Finance Ministry actively adopting stakeholders’ recommendations ahead of Budget 2026–27.