The support from the government for emerging technologies through initiatives like the AI mission, National Quantum Mission, Anusandhan National Research Fund, and Research and Innovation Fund is expected to significantly benefit Indian higher education institutions that are shaping the country’s future entrepreneurs, industry leaders stated on Monday.

The Union Budget 2026 indicates a clear transition in India’s approach to technology, moving from simple adoption to the development of strategic capabilities.

“The focus on AI, semiconductors, cloud computing, and data infrastructure shows a solid recognition that excelling in the digital economy begins with having strong foundational elements. Enhancing the India AI Mission offers a unified framework to speed up AI research, implementation, and the ethical management of AI across various sectors,” remarked CP Gurnani, Co-Founder and Vice Chairman of AIONOS.

Crucially, this agenda goes beyond a limited technological focus. By integrating AI funding with skill development, workforce preparedness, and empowerment of MSMEs, the Budget acknowledges that growth, inclusivity, and competitiveness must advance in tandem, he stated.

The emphasis on incorporating technology across various sectors aims to support farmers directly, increase female participation in STEM fields, and provide youth with the skills needed to seize emerging opportunities, noted Chocko Valliappa, Vice Chairman of Sona College of Technology.

“The budget allocation of Rs 139,289 crore for the education sector is an increase of 14.2 percent compared to the revised estimate of Rs 121,949 crore for 2025-26. According to the revised estimate, the actual expenditure on education fell short by 5 percent relative to the budgeted figure,” he mentioned.

The budget proposal to establish five university townships near key industrial and logistics corridors, featuring a variety of universities, colleges, research institutions, and skill centers, is a positive initiative.

“States such as Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, and Maharashtra, which have a robust manufacturing sector and numerous higher education institutions, could easily host one of these university townships,” Valliappa commented.

As per industry experts, the Union Budget conveys a strong message that India’s upcoming growth phase will be driven by AI-focused digital capabilities, extensive skill development, and competitive technology services on a global scale.

“The suggested Education to Employment and Enterprise framework is a timely initiative aimed at closing the gap between curriculum and industry, especially in emerging fields like AI, data engineering, and digital platforms, where the demand for skilled professionals is exceeding the availability of prepared talent,” stated Sachin Alug, CEO of NLB Services.

The emphasis on tier 2 and tier 3 areas as Digital Economy Zones enhances India’s Global Capability Center ecosystem by tapping into new talent sources and fostering distributed, resilient operating models outside of metropolitan areas, Alug highlighted.

The creation of a unified IT Services framework with more defined tax regulations and safe harbour guidelines is also crucial, as it offers businesses long-term certainty, experts expressed.

Challa Sreenivasulu Setty stated that, Chairman of the State Bank of India, the Budget for 2026–2027 is a major step toward turning India into a global center for innovation and sophisticated manufacturing with global competitiveness as the cornerstone.

The budget attempts to strike a delicate balance between the rural and urban, legacy and sunrise industries while maintaining policy continuity and tax predictability.The budget for this year includes both futuristic and predictable components.

The predictable portion is the basic framework which remains focused on emerging and employment creating sectors.

“With an increase in proposed investments, the infrastructure sector continues to be an anchor,” he stated in the “Union Budget 2026-27 Analysis Report” published by State Bank of India.

The banking industry has a lot of advantages and prospects. Reinventing banking in quickly changing context and maintaining financial markets orderly and stable, thereby aligning with India’s next phase of growth continues to be crucial for the sector, Setty added.

Announcements on semiconductors, data centers, carbon capture utilization and storage, critical minerals, and other areas are part of the futurist push on sunrise industries.

“Starting with basic fiscal math, the budgetary allocations are based on the assumption of nominal GDP growth of 10 per cent which appears prudent given the way inflation is panning out.

According to him, this results in a budget imbalance of 4.3 percent of GDP.

The Budget has made some significant changes in the areas of agriculture and rural areas.

“The focus will now be on high value products such as sandalwood, cashews, fisheries though Integrated development of 500 reservoirs, coconut promotion scheme to increase production, rejuvenating old, low-yielding orchards and expand high-density cultivation of walnuts, almonds and pine nuts,” said the SBI Chairman.

There is additional attention on growing the use of AI in agriculture by integrating Agri Stack portals.

A focus on services, especially tourism, the orange economy, and education, is appropriate and complementary to the planned infrastructure expansion, connectivity, and future growth driven by digital capital expenditures.

As a key component of Viksit Bharat, the services sector will be the focus of the High-Powered “Education to Employment and Enterprise” Standing Committee.

The enormous scope of specialized building necessitates a local infrastructure equipment supply chain. In light of this, the budget suggests producing high-value, cutting-edge infrastructure and construction equipment domestically.

Setty stated, “On the financing side, an Infrastructure Risk Guarantee Fund will be established to provide prudently calibrated partial credit guarantees to lenders in order to further strengthen the confidence of private developers.”

The Budget has attempted to leverage the potential of urban agglomerations in recognition of India’s fast urbanization. In order to do this, city economic regions (CER) would be mapped according to their unique growth drivers, and each CER will get a five-year allocation of Rs 5,000 crore for the implementation of development plans.

According to Setty, the Budget has suggested expanding the present Indian Semiconductor Mission (ISM) in the sunrise industries by proposing India Semiconductor Mission (ISM) 2.0 to manufacture materials and equipment, create full-stack Indian intellectual property, and strengthen supply chains.

Keeping in mind the disruption in vital minerals, the existing National vital Mineral Mission will be complimented by a dedicated Rare Earth Corridors to be constructed and exemption from BCD for capital goods import.

The people oriented efforts, ease of doing business and living metrics which create the softer side of the tough decisions highlights the challenges that country faces, he observed.

The Union Budget 2026–27 presents a robust and credible blueprint to strengthen India’s competitiveness through fiscal discipline, structural reforms and targeted measures aimed at increasing private investment, business groups said on Sunday.

CII Punjab Chairman Amin Jain said the Budget features numerous major initiatives for the textile sector.

“These include the redevelopment of heritage textile parks, integrated plans for labor-intensive textile segments, and the development of mega textile parks, which he said will provide a significant boost to the domestic textile industry,” Jain continued.

Noting that the majority of MSMEs in the nation are in the textile industry, he also applauded the creation of a Rs 10,000 crore MSME fund.

According to Jain, “the new fund is expected to benefit the entire sector.”

The Budget, according to Naresh Pachisia, President of the India Chambers of Commerce, is well-balanced and would help sustain economic growth at about 7%.

He noted that in order to ensure widespread development, the Finance Minister has established targeted plans across industries.

Pachisia said that in order to limit inflation, the government has upheld strict fiscal restraint.

According to Pachisia, “the fiscal deficit for the current financial year has been pegged at 4.4%, with a target of 4.3% for the next fiscal year, which provides greater resilience against global economic volatility.”

The Budget is a positive move, according to Mukul Bagla, Chairman of PHDCCI’s Direct Tax Committee.

He stated that the present fiscal deficit of 4.4% is intended to be gradually reduced to 4%.

Bagla went on to say that although the previous budget had a number of tax relief measures, the new budget places a greater emphasis on stability.

The government has proposed a number of customs reforms, which is encouraging, according to Ashok Batra, Chairman of PHDCCI’s Indirect Tax Committee.

However, he added that similar reforms were also expected in the GST framework.

The Union Budget 2026 was praised by industry association Nasscom on Sunday for emphasizing technology as a key component of equitable, sustainable growth.

In her ninth straight budget, FM Nirmala Sitharaman offered a consultative and forward-thinking plan that strengthens the relationship between the government and business.

“The Budget reflects a continued focus on ease of doing business and on strengthening India’s position as a global technology and services powerhouse under the Viksit Bharat vision, with technology positioned as a core driver of inclusive and sustainable growth,” Nasscom stated.

According to the industry association, the rationalization of the international taxes and transfer pricing framework, as well as the obvious application of tax policy as a competitive lever, are significant advantages for the technology sector.

Additionally, Nasscom applauded the Budget for being in line with long-standing industry priorities that have been continuously expressed through ongoing engagement and input.

“Access to certainty mechanisms for routine cross-border IT service models is materially expanded by the consolidation of software development services, IT-enabled services, KPO, and contract R&D related to software development into a single category of information technology services with a uniform safe harbour margin of 15.5% and the enhancement of the Safe Harbour eligibility threshold from Rs 300 crore to Rs 2,000 crore,” the report stated.

The enhancement of the Advance Pricing Agreement structure was also praised by Nasscom.Long-standing issues with timeliness and access to certainty are directly addressed by the Budget’s plan to expedite unilateral APAs for IT services, with an aim to conclude them within two years and a restricted extension window, it stated.

Additionally, the Budget strengthens India’s cloud and digital infrastructure ecosystem through a significant involvement.

The industry body stated, “The proposal for a tax holiday until 2047 for foreign companies offering cloud services to customers worldwide using data center services from India, with services to Indian customers routed through an Indian reseller entity, sends a clear signal to attract long-term global investment and support the expansion of India’s compute capacity.”

The introduction of the India Semiconductor Mission 2.0 and the increased investment of Rs 40,000 crore for the Electronics Components Manufacturing Scheme are two examples of the ongoing emphasis on developing domestic capability in strategic technologies that Nasscom applauded.

Nasscom stated that the “Union Budget 2026 sets a clear direction by aligning policy certainty with digital and manufacturing capability” and that these actions indicate a more developed policy approach that centers India’s long-term competitiveness around technology, digital infrastructure, and tax certainty.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman outlined three “Kartavyas” (duties) to empower the impoverished, disadvantaged, and underprivileged while also boosting the economy.

Since this is the first budget created at Kartavya Bhavan, Sitharaman stated that “we are inspired by three Kartavyas” in order to fulfill the government’s “sankalp” (resolve).The first Kartavya is to increase productivity, competitiveness, and resilience to unstable global conditions in order to accelerate and maintain economic growth.

While delivering the Union Budget 2026–2027, she stated, “Our second Kartavya is to fulfill the aspirations of our people and build their capacity, making them strong partners in India’s path to prosperity.”

“Our third Kartavya aligned with our vision of ‘Sabka Saath Sabka Vikaas‘ is to ensure that every family, community, region and sector has access to resources,” she stated.

“The ‘Reform Express’ is well on its way and will keep up its momentum to help us fulfill our duties,” she added.

Scaling up manufacturing in a number of strategic and frontier sectors, revitalizing legacy industrial sectors, establishing champion MSMEs, delivering a strong push for infrastructure, guaranteeing long-term security and stability, and developing city economic regions are the six areas in which the Finance Minister suggested interventions.

“As the need for water, energy, and essential minerals rises dramatically, new technologies are changing industrial methods. By striking a balance between ambition and inclusivity, India will keep moving confidently in the direction of Viksit Bharat,” she stated.

As the nation’s first female finance minister, Sitharaman has presented the budget to Parliament nine times in a row.

Due to current geopolitical pressures, the budget is likely to concentrate more on capital expenditures, particularly in industries considered strategically significant.