Capex Up, Tax Holiday For Data Centres, Cheaper Cancer Drugs: Nirmala Sitharaman's Budget

Here's your 10-point cheat sheet to this big story

1. There was no relief to income tax payers - who will navigate the new Income Tax Act from April 1 - expecting tax rebates or Standard Deduction changes. Sitharaman announced a tax holiday - till 2047 - to any foreign company providing cloud services by setting up data centres in India and proposed a simplified tax regime for corporates. She also announced a rationalisation of the prosecution framework under the new Income Tax Act.

2. One eye-catching proposal, though, was targeted relief for cancer patients by exempting basic customs duty on 17 essential drugs and medicines to reduce treatment costs. Further, seven more rare diseases are to be offered duty exemptions for personal imports of drugs, medicines, and foods for special medical needs used in cancer care.

3. Other big-ticket proposals were the setting up a committee to review the impact of new technologies, like Artificial Intelligence, on the services sector and a Rs 40,000 crore push over five years for the semiconductor sector to focus on research and training centres.

4. The military was given Rs 2.19 lakh crore - an increase of 21.84 per cent - for modernisation in FY2026/27. Overall, the defence budget for the year was increased to Rs 7.85 lakh crore, which is 11 per cent of the GDP, up from eight per cent in FY26.

5. For accelerated and sustainable growth, Sitharaman proposed interventions in six strategic areas, including scaling 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.

6. A proposal for mega textile parks and a National Fibre Scheme for self-sufficiency in this space was made, 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.

7. She proposed setting up a high-level committee to "comprehensively review" the banking sector. There was also a proposal for a comprehensive review of the Foreign Exchange Management framework, and one to allow foreign individuals to invest in Indian equities.

8. During her speech the Finance Minister said seven high-speed rail networks - i.e., Mumbai-Pune, Hyderabad-Pune, Hyderabad-Bengaluru, Chennai-Bengaluru, Delhi-Varanasi, and Varanasi-Silliguri - would be established as 'growth connectors'.

9. To reduce India's dependence on China for rare earth minerals, she said dedicated corridors would be set up for in four states - Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Odisha, and Andhra.

10. Hubs are to be created 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 to create jobs.