'Future-Ready Budget For Viksit Bharat': Piyush Goyal To NDTV

Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal called the Union Budget 2026 "future-ready" for a developed India (Viksit Bharat) by 2047. The budget places heavy emphasis on the manufacturing sector and youth reskilling to strengthen India's position as the world's fastest-growing economy, he said.

"This budget prepares India to grasp the opportunities that all the other measures are leading to, including the free-trade deal. It is giving wings to the aspirations of 1.4 billion Indians," Goyal told NDTV today.

On a trade agreement with the US, the Union Minister clarified it is making very good progress. "We are confident we will strike a deal in the near future," he said.

One of the big announcements made by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman today in her ninth straight Union Budget included building seven high-speed rail corridors to connect cities and make them into growth engines.

The proposed routes are Mumbai-Pune, Pune-Hyderabad, Hyderabad-Bengaluru, Hyderabad-Chennai, Chennai-Bengaluru, Delhi-Varanasi, and Varanasi-Siliguri.

To a question about taking up new rail projects before older ones are completed, Goyal told NDTV the new corridors are a "brilliant idea". He said the earlier project was delayed by the then Congress, Sharad Pawar and Uddhav Thackeray alliance government for two-and-a-half years.

"We may actually finish the Gujarat end of the project (Mumbai-Ahmedabad corridor). But they completely stopped work on the Maharashtra end of the project. We are now trying to catch up," Goyal said.

"I think preparing ourselves for new corridors is in a way national service. More people across the country are going to benefit from these high-speed corridors. We will have new corridors covering large parts of south India... for travel between Hyderabad-Bengaluru, Chennai-Mumbai..." the Union minister told NDTV.

In her speech, the Finance Minister said India's economic trajectory has been marked by stability, fiscal discipline, sustained growth and moderate inflation since the current government came to power 12 years ago.

"This is the result of conscious choices we have made, even in times of heightened uncertainty and disruption. Our government, led by Hon'ble Prime Minister Modi, has decisively and consistently chosen action over ambivalence, reform over rhetoric and people over populism," she said.