"This was quite an intense year, I must say we are happy that both these two trade agreements set up the economy nicely for 2026- 27," said Chief Economic Adviser V Anantha Nageswaran.

"It's very positive for the sectors who have got impacted because of the tariffs that was raised up to 50%, and a lot of these sectors were labor intensive sectors, and beyond a point, a lot of these companies were MSMEs who were 100%, a large part of their revenues were really from exports to US so for many of them it was an existential issue," said Rajiv Memani, Chairman and CEO - EY India.

"We have reached the final stage, which is the evaluation and approval stage. You will hear more from us by the end of March, the end of the current financial year," said Dr Arunish Chawla, Secretary, DIPAM on bidding for strategic disinvestment in the IDBI Bank.

"The 80,000 crore target that you're talking about includes not just traditional disinvestment. not just a traditional land sale. It includes all the new innovative forms of asset monetisation, all the new innovative forms of asset monetisation," said Dr Arunish Chawla, Secretary, DIPAM.

"We are not a Department of Disinvestment anymore. We are DIPAM. We are a department for investments. We are a department for public asset management. And we light diyas in the lives of ordinary investors and minority stakeholders," said Dr Arunish Chawla, Secretary, DIPAM.

Yashish Dahiya, Co‑Founder, Chairman & Group CEO, PB Fintech, shared his perspective on the rapidly evolving impact of artificial intelligence, noting that AI is increasingly becoming a commodity. He explained that, like any commodity, its price continues to decline, making advanced AI capabilities progressively more accessible.

Dahiya believes this trend will lead to AI becoming affordable for everyone, enabling widespread adoption across sectors and user groups. He added that AI is not only easy to use but also profoundly transformative, reshaping industries and empowering individuals and businesses with unprecedented efficiency and innovation.

"As we do these trade deals, we all become friendly in trade with each other. So those regulators will also accept us much more if the UK Financial Services wants to be here, then why doesn't our financial services want to be there?" said Yashish Dahiya, Co-founder, Chairman and Group CEO, PB Fintech.

MSME is contributing close to 30% in manufacturing and also about 45% in the exports, so they are a very important pillar. Now if the budget and the government are focusing more on infrastructure spending, the manufacturing service sector. All these sectors are ultimately going to boost. And I think NBFC, the sector, is going to help them meet the last mile connectivity where the formal banking system is not able to meet their demand because they are not that well organised in terms of offering paperwork and meeting the complex credit requirement," said Rajesh Sharma, Managing Director, Capri Global Capital Ltd.

"Recent RBI focus and even the mentioning of NBFC in the budget that NBFC is going to play a role, which clearly brings a forecast that NBFCs are going to play an important role, and we are, we are glad that now everybody, including the government and RBI recognising that that is going to help us," he added.

"I think, as you rightly said, the US trade deal put a lot of uncertainty to rest, and a lot of apprehensions about a very penal kind of tariffs on some of our sectors. Since I come from the auto sector, I particularly know that the auto component sector was up against a wall. They had to face something like a 50% tariff, which is just impossible to penetrate," said Rahul Bharti, Executive Director, Corporate Affairs, Maruti Suzuki.

"So across sectors, I think it will open up a big opportunity for exports. We don't think there are many areas of sensitivity where there are many concerns," he said.

"We must all agree as a country to stop talking about headline GDP growth. It matters almost nothing to the average aam admi. There is a very clear divorce between headline GDP and incomes and prices for the common person, and it's not just in India but throughout the world," said Praveen Chakravarty, Economist and Chairman of the All India Professionals' Congress.

"Inflation is at one of the lowest levels, highly manageable level. And how does it not help the common man when the inflation is low? Does it not help the salaried class when the growth when we are the fastest growing large economy in the world. Yesterday, the RBI said they have further improved our estimates for this year at 7.3% growth rate. Does it not help it happened and among the three pillars that finance minister, I repeat, I go back to the speech. Among the three pillars she talked about growth. She talked about inclusivity," said GVL Narsimha Rao, former Rajya Sabha MP on India's growth.

"There is everything in this budget regarding farmers, the youth, the women, every section is benefiting from this growth, and that's why after a long time there is a sense of happiness when the GST rates were cut down 6 months ago, 4 months ago. GST is paid by everybody. The rich man, the poor man, everyone pays GST, and they have been given a huge relief," he said.

Praveen Chakravarty, Economist and Chairman of the All India Professionals’ Congress, and GVL Narsimha Rao, former Rajya Sabha MP and member of Parliament’s Standing Committee on Finance, join NDTV's Vasudha Venugopal in a panel titled 'The Economics of India’s Next Decade'.

Union Minister Piyush Goyal to be at the #NDTVProfitConclave today for the first exclusive interview post the unveiling of the India-US interim trade framework
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The NDTV Profit Conclave 2026 brings together a powerful lineup of policymakers shaping India's economic and strategic agenda. The discussions feature Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal, Chief Economic Adviser V Anantha Nageswaran, DIPAM Secretary Arunish Chawla, Defence Secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh, and PM-EAC Member Sanjeev Sanyal, alongside industry leaders, to decode trade, tariffs and India's global ambitions.

Coming up at 3pm | India-US trade deal, #Budget2026 and more will be discussed at #NDTVProfitConclave2026 with ministers and experts. Stay tuned to NDTV Network.@TamannaInamdar @nirajshah @alexandermats @NDTVProfitIndia
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