India finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman hospitalised for routine check-up

New Delhi: India’s Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman was admitted to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi on Monday, Press Trust of India reported, citing unnamed people.

The 63-year-old was taken to the hospital around noon and is in a private ward, the news agency said. News agency ANI said she was admitted for a routine check-up.

Her hospital visit comes just weeks before the presentation of the federal budget on Feb. 1. It is expected to be the final full-year budget before the nation heads for a general election in the summer of 2024.

Sitharaman, who became the nation’s first female finance minister in almost five decades in 2019, faces the tough task of reviving Asia’s third-largest economy amid global slowdown fears, while being fiscally prudent.

The $3.2 trillion economy grew 6.3% from a year ago in the July to September period, slowing from 13.5% in the previous three months. The deceleration comes after global central banks stepped up their fight against inflation by hiking interest rates aggressively.