BANGALORE: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley began presenting the first national budget for self and Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government expressing concerns over economic slowdown while promising steps to ensure a course correction with bold measures.

"People of India have voted decisively for change," Jaitley said. "Steps I will unveil in the budget will aim at 7-8 percent growth over the next three-four years, lower inflation, less fiscal deficit and a manageable current account deficit."FULL COVERAGE: Union Budget

The minister said given the state of the economy today, high inflation, low growth and moderate rise in tax collections, the fiscal deficit target of 4.1 percent of India's gross domestic product set by his predecessor P. Chidambaram was a "daunting" task.

"But I have decided to accept this target as a challenge," he said, adding he will seek to further bring down the fiscal deficit to 3.6 percent for the next fiscal and to 3 percent in the year after.

He said the country cannot be made to suffer due to indecisiveness and populism and there was an urgent need to revive growth in manufacturing and infrastructure. "We will also examine proposals for more autonomy to banks."