MUMBAI: Internet users and Indian economy watchers the world over wanting to keep track of the central budget pronouncements can do so on budget day 28 February courtesy MSN and SifyMax. The two will stream finance minister P Chidambaram's Union budget speech live.

The live webcast is available for the first time to the online community who can log on to www.msn.co.in from 11 am IST onwards. MSN India is presenting this live webcast in association with LIC. MSN is also providing users the option to catch up with the recorded version, which will be available for the next couple of weeks.

MSN India head sales and marketing Rajnish R views this as an opportunity for advertisers to reach the 40 million Internet users and million of NRIs the world over.

Broadband consumer portal from Sify Ltd will also bring the same live webcast of the Union budget on www.sifymax.in, in association with the National Informatics Centre (NIC).

Sify Ltd Sr VP Interactive Services Surya Mantha adds, "We will also be the only consumer portal to provide budget news and analysis in five Indian languages; Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam. We have taken the lead in developing multi-lingual versions of our popular portal as we believe that content in Indian languages is crucial to getting many more Indians to access and use the Internet."

Surfers will have access to the daylong live coverage on the MSN and SifyMax, starting at 11 am. SifyMax is also arranging for a live analysis from the Sify Digital Studio by a panel of experts. Post-budget coverage will include sector wise analyses and implications of Budget 2006, feedback from users, live online chats on the budget's impact on the common man, and useful tools for users to assess the impact of budget proposals on their finances.