New Delhi, Feb. 1 -- Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the Union Budget for 2026-27 on Sunday, 1 February, against the backdrop of renewed geo-economic disruptions affecting India. With these pressures likely to spill into the coming financial year, the Budget offers a window into how the government plans to respond to a set of pressing challenges.

In this five-part series, we use charts to examine the Budget's response across 15 key concerns.

This part looks at the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), affordable housing, and tourism. Each topic has a pair of charts-one presenting the context the Budget faced, and the other showing what the Budget delivered.

This part looks at the Mahatma Gan...