One of the mainstays of India’s political calendar is the annual Union Budget that is presented every February.

This year — in a first for the Government of India — the Finance Minister will take to Google+ Hangouts 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.

On the 28th of February, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram will head to Parliament to deliver the Union Budget of India. Four days later, he will turn to Google+ to respond to

questions

pertaining to the Budget. Check out the event page here:

http://goo.gl/4IFSJ

and tune in to the Hangout on

March 4, 2013 at 8:00 p.m. IST.

Joining the Finance Minister’s Hangout is a panel of luminaries:

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.

During the conversation, selected participants will ask the Minister questions — but we’d also like to hear from

you

before the Hangout.

To ask Mr. Chidambaram a question, head to the In Conversation YouTube channel (

www.youtube.com/inconversation

), where you can submit your question in the form of a video or as a comment. You can also ask a question through the Google India +Page at

google.com/+GoogleIndia

by submitting a video or text question using the hashtag

#askthefm

.

Looking for inspiration for your question? Watch the Finance Minister’s budget speech live on

YouTube

on the 28th of February at 10 a.m. IST. Then tune in on Monday, March 4th for the Budget Hangout on Google India’s +Page for a unique discussion with the Indian Finance Minister.

We are happy to bring you this Google+ Hangout as part of our continuing efforts to use the Internet for conversations with policymakers.