Budget Powers Viksit Bharat with Jobs, Energy, And Innovation Focus
There were increased expectations from Union Budget 2025-26 regarding building on the momentum of last year's 9 budget top priorities - and it has provided. With India marching towards realising the Viksit Bharat vision, this budget takes definitive actions for high-impact growth. The Economic Survey's quote of 6.4% genuine GDP growth and retail inflation softening from 5.4% in FY24 to 4.9% in FY25 reinforces India's position as the world's fastest-growing significant economy. The budget for the coming fiscal has actually capitalised on sensible fiscal management and enhances the four crucial pillars of India's financial resilience - tasks, employment energy security, production, employment and employment development.
India needs to develop 7.85 million non-agricultural tasks every year till 2030 - and this spending plan steps up. It has boosted workforce capabilities through the launch of 5 National Centres of Excellence for Skilling and intends to align training with "Produce India, Make for the World" producing requirements. Additionally, a growth of capacity in the IITs will accommodate 6,500 more trainees, ensuring a consistent pipeline of technical talent. It likewise identifies the function of micro and small business (MSMEs) in generating work. The improvement of credit warranties for micro and small enterprises from 5 crore to 10 crore, opens an additional 1.5 lakh crore in loans over 5 years. This, coupled with personalized credit cards for micro business with a 5 lakh limit, will improve capital access for employment small services. While these procedures are commendable, the scaling of industry-academia cooperation as well as fast-tracking will be key to guaranteeing sustained task development.
India stays highly reliant on Chinese imports for solar modules, electrical lorry (EV) batteries, and key electronic parts, exposing the sector to geopolitical threats and trade barriers. This budget takes this difficulty head-on. It designates 81,174 crore to the energy sector, a significant boost from the 63,403 crore in the existing financial, signalling a significant push towards reinforcing supply chains and lowering import dependence. The exemptions for employment 35 additional capital items required for EV battery production contributes to this. The reduction of import responsibility on solar cells from 25% to 20% and solar modules from 40% to 20% eases costs for designers while India scales up domestic production capacity. The allocation to the ministry of new and sustainable energy (MNRE) has actually increased 53% to 26,549 crore, with the PM Surya Ghar Muft Bijli Yojana seeing an 80% jump to 20,000 crore. These measures provide the definitive push, but to truly attain our climate objectives, we should also speed up investments in battery recycling, important mineral extraction, and tactical supply chain integration.
With capital investment approximated at 4.3% of GDP, the highest it has been for the past 10 years, this budget lays the foundation for India's production resurgence. Initiatives such as the National Manufacturing Mission will offer making it possible for employment policy assistance for small, medium, and large markets and will further strengthen the Make-in-India vision by enhancing domestic value chains. Infrastructure stays a traffic jam for manufacturers. The spending plan addresses this with massive financial investments in logistics to lower supply chain expenses, which currently stand at 13-14% of GDP, considerably higher than that of the majority of the developed countries (~ 8%). A cornerstone of the Mission is clean tech production. There are promising steps throughout the value chain. The budget introduces customizeds responsibility exemptions on lithium-ion battery scrap, cobalt, and 12 other important minerals, securing the supply of necessary products and reinforcing India's position in worldwide clean-tech value chains.
Despite India's flourishing tech ecosystem, research and development (R&D) financial investments stay listed below 1% of GDP, compared to 2.4% in China and 3.5% in the US. Future jobs will need Industry 4.0 capabilities, and India must prepare now. This budget takes on the space. A good start is the federal government assigning 20,000 crore to a private-sector-driven Research, Development, and Innovation (RDI) effort. The spending plan recognises the transformative potential of artificial intelligence (AI) by presenting the PM Research Fellowship, which will provide 10,000 fellowships for technological research study in IITs and IISc with improved financial backing. This, in addition to a Centre of Excellence for AI and 50,000 Atal Tinkering Labs in federal government schools, are positive actions towards a knowledge-driven economy.
