Maybe it’s because the sword of recession is at the economy’s throat, or maybe just a function of the growth in media, but there’s no doubting that this is probably the most hyped union budget in years: newspapers, TV channels and magazines have been going on ad nauseum about it for weeks. So can new media be far behind? Here’s a compilation of what’s being done:

—India Today Digital: A separate microsite at Digital Today, dedicated to the Budget. They’re offering videos, comments, readers take. What they have done differently, is offer Budget highlights via SMS alerts, which I like. Also included are calculators for working out the impact of the budget on you.
—Mint: We’d mentioned the If I were FM blogs earlier. Apart from that, Livemint is streaming the budget live, and has also set up WAP site at http://mobile.livemint.com . The attention to usability on the WAP site reminded me of this presentation on best practices for the mobile web, from the last barcamp in Delhi. Livemint Mobile could dispense with the images, and maybe that ‘more’ link will become useful once there is more content.
—Moneycontrol: Well, the less said about Moneycontrol’s design and user experience, the better. They’re still likely to get the most traffic of all of these budget sites/microsites: CNBC-TV18 is being streamed live here and there’s a separate segment on the budget here.
—Rediff: is providing sector-wise coverage and analysis at MoneyWiz, alongwith a live Webcast of the Finance Ministers speech (in video and text format). They’ve also added live market voices to the mix, with reactions from the stock market
—NDTV Profit: Apart from the usual, they’ve also got users questions being asnwered by experts, as well as blogs. The main site redirects to a special budget site.
—Zapak: What’s a gaming site doing covering the Budget? Well, simplifying it, apparently: there are games, forums and a tax calculator.

Meanwhile, I’m watching Lok Sabha TV.