By Kumar Mangalam Birla, Chairman, Aditya Birla Group
Every Budget signals the direction of travel. Budget 2026-27 makes it clear that India is choosing the path of long-term growth. This is not growth by impulse or short-term stimulus, but by deliberate investment in the institutions, infrastructure, skills, and industrial capacity that define a rapidly developing economy. Total expenditure stands at Rs 53.5 lakh crore, the fiscal deficit is estimated at 4.3% of GDP, and effective capital expenditure including grants to states reaches Rs 17.1 lakh crore. In a fractured global order, the government has chosen to keep building.
Manufacturing forms the core of this strategy. Seven strategic sectors, including biopharmaceuticals, semiconductors, electronics components, rare earth magnets, chemical parks, capital goods, and textiles, receive focused support. The India Semiconductor Mission 2.0 widens its scope to equipment, materials, and design capability. The electronics component manufacturing scheme already shows strong private response, and the expanded outlay reflects that traction. The rare earth initiative addresses a vulnerability that many advanced economies are now racing to close. Investments in hi-tech tool rooms, container manufacturing, and textiles point to a deeper objective of strengthening the industrial base.
Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) also receive serious attention. The Rs 10,000 crore SME Growth Fund seeks to nurture future champions. Mandating the Trade Receivables Discounting System for government procurement can ease liquidity constraints that often hold back expansion. The Corporate Mitras initiative brings professional advisory support to entrepreneurs outside major metros. Equity support, improved liquidity, and access to expertise together address structural hurdles that MSMEs face in scaling up.
The services sector emerges as a parallel engine of growth. India’s pool of young, educated professionals is large, yet the bridge from education to enterprise has been uneven. The proposed standing committee on Education to Employment and Enterprise aims to identify high-potential services segments and clear regulatory bottlenecks. Healthcare services expand through allied health professional institutions, medical tourism hubs, and a broader care ecosystem. For the IT sector, safe harbour rationalisation and faster advance pricing processes aim to preserve competitiveness as global firms evaluate new operating bases. Tourism initiatives, including hospitality training and digital documentation of destinations, recognise the employment and foreign exchange potential of the sector.
Fiscal discipline underpins these ambitions. The deficit estimate of 4.3% of GDP and a debt-to-GDP ratio easing to 55.6% provide macroeconomic stability. Net market borrowing estimates at Rs 11.7 lakh crore strike the right balance: large enough to fund ambitious public investment, disciplined enough to protect India’s sovereign credit profile. The government threads a genuinely difficult needle here, allocating more to productive assets while estimating lower borrowings relative to the economy. That combination strengthens India’s hand in global capital markets at precisely the moment when investors seek stability.
The Budget also speaks fluently to the future. A tax holiday stretching to 2047 for foreign companies providing cloud services through Indian data centres positions India as a serious destination for digital infrastructure investment. The Rs 1,000-crore allocation for the India AI Mission and the launch of Bharat-VISTAAR bring artificial intelligence to agriculture and public services. These allocations signal that India intends to shape the next technological wave. The Carbon Capture Utilisation and Storage scheme targets five industrial sectors—power, steel, cement, fertiliser, and refining—with clear timelines. Allocations for battery energy storage, solar manufacturing, nuclear power extensions, and the PM Surya Ghar scheme collectively build an energy transition strategy with depth.
This is a Budget that accelerates the Modi government’s unstoppable reform express. And coming on the back of the mega goods and services tax reform and labour code overhaul, it locks in the architecture for sustained expansion. If industry and entrepreneurs respond with equal commitment, India’s productive capacity can expand at a scale that matches its ambitions.