Union Budget 2026: Nirmala Sitharaman will present her 9th straight Union Budget today
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented her ninth budget Sunday with announcements that included capex increasing to Rs 12.2 lakh crore, setting up seven, high-speed rail corridors as 'growth connectors', and focusing on jobs with eye on AI.
Here's your 10-point cheat sheet to this big story
- Analysts expected India - the world's fastest-growing major economy - to prioritise capex spending, and that expectation was met early with an increase to Rs 12.2 lakh crore. Spending on defence, infrastructure, power, and affordable housing, is also expected.
- In her opening remarks the Finance Minister said the government had pursued "far-reaching" reforms while keeping aatmanirbhar Bharat, or a self-reliant India, as the "lodestar" and worked to ensure "substantial strides in poverty alleviation" while transforming production systems with new technologies. "India will continue to take confident steps towards Viksit Bharat... but India must also remain deeply integrated with global markets," Sitharaman said.
- The 2026 union budget, she said, was inspired by three kartavyas, or responsibilities. These are to accelerate and sustain economic growth by enhancing competitiveness, fulfill aspirations, and ensure every family, community, region has access to resources and opportunities. This will require a "supportive ecosystem", she said, adding, "The 'Reform Express' is on its way."
- For accelerated and sustainable economic growth, the Finance Minister proposed interventions in six strategic areas. This includes a proposal to scale up manufacturing in strategic sectors and the creation of 'champion MSMEs' and another to develop the country's global bio-pharma hub under the Biopharma Shakti mission with an outlay of Rs 10,000 crore over five years.
- She also announced the country's Semiconductor Mission 2.0. This, she said, would focus on industry-led research and training centres for semiconductors, for which outlay would be increased to Rs 40,000 crore. Concurrently, the Finance Minister also spoke about support for mineral-rich states like Orissa, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu.
- Nirmala Sitharaman also unveiled a proposal for mega textile parks in 'challenge mode' and a National Fibre Scheme for self-sufficiency in this space, as well as the launch of a Mahatma Gandhi Gram Samaj initiative to support Khadi and handicrafts business. Expanding this sector, she said, would offer increased employment and announced an upskilling programme.
- A significant proposal was to do with the banking sector. The Finance Minister proposed setting up a high-level committee to "comprehensively review" the sector and its operations. There was also a proposal for a comprehensive review of the Foreign Exchange Management framework.
- She also announced the development of seven high-speed rail corridors between cities as 'growth connectors'. These seven are Mumbai-Pune, Hyderabad-Pune, Hyderabad-Bengaluru, Chennai-Bengaluru, Delhi-Varanasi, and Varanasi-Silliguri.
- On the second kartavya, i.e., fulfilling aspirations, Sitharaman said close to 25 crore individuals had come out of "multi-dimensional poverty" over the past decade.
- Mention was made of creating hubs for 'medical tourism', as part of which a proposal was made to launch a scheme to support state governments to set up five regional medical hubs with Aayush centres, infrastructure for diagnostics, and post-care rehabilitation. This, she said, would provide diverse job opportunities.
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