Budget Powers Viksit Bharat with Jobs, Energy, And Innovation Focus

There were increased expectations from Union Budget 2025-26 regarding structure on the momentum of last year’s nine budget priorities – and it has provided. With India marching towards understanding the Viksit Bharat vision, this budget takes definitive actions for high-impact growth. The Economic Survey’s estimate of 6.4% genuine GDP development and retail inflation softening from 5.4% in FY24 to 4.9% in FY25 reinforces India’s position as the world’s fastest-growing major economy. The budget plan for the coming fiscal has actually capitalised on sensible financial management and enhances the four essential pillars of India’s economic resilience – jobs, energy security, manufacturing, and development.

India needs to produce 7.85 million non-agricultural jobs each year up until 2030 – and this spending plan steps up. It has improved workforce capabilities through the launch of 5 National Centres of Excellence for Skilling and aims to align training with “Make for India, Produce the World” manufacturing requirements. Additionally, a growth of capacity in the IITs will accommodate 6,500 more trainees, ensuring a steady pipeline of technical talent. It also acknowledges the function of micro and small enterprises (MSMEs) in producing employment. The enhancement of credit guarantees for micro and small business from 5 crore to 10 crore, unlocks an additional 1.5 lakh crore in loans over five years. This, combined with customised charge card for micro enterprises with a 5 lakh limitation, will enhance capital access for little organizations. While these measures are good, the scaling of industry-academia cooperation as well as fast-tracking professional training will be crucial to ensuring continual task creation.

India remains extremely based on Chinese imports for solar modules, electrical vehicle (EV) batteries, and essential electronic components, exposing the sector to geopolitical threats and trade barriers. This budget takes this challenge head-on. It designates 81,174 crore to the energy sector, a considerable increase from the 63,403 crore in the current financial, signalling a major push towards reinforcing supply chains and reducing import reliance. The exemptions for 35 extra capital goods needed for EV battery manufacturing contributes to this. The reduction of import task on solar cells from 25% to 20% and solar modules from 40% to 20% eases costs for developers while India scales up domestic production capacity. The allowance to the ministry of new and renewable resource (MNRE) has increased 53% to 26,549 crore, with the PM Surya Ghar Muft Bijli Yojana seeing an 80% jump to 20,000 crore. These steps offer the definitive push, but to genuinely achieve our climate objectives, we need to likewise accelerate financial investments in battery recycling, crucial mineral extraction, and strategic supply chain integration.

With capital expenditure approximated at 4.3% of GDP, the highest it has been for the past ten years, this budget lays the structure for India’s production resurgence. Initiatives such as the National Manufacturing Mission will offer enabling policy support for small, medium, and big industries and will further solidify the Make-in-India vision by reinforcing domestic value chains. Infrastructure remains a bottleneck for makers. The budget plan addresses this with enormous financial investments in logistics to lower supply chain expenses, which presently stand at 13-14% of GDP, substantially higher than that of the majority of the developed nations (~ 8%). A foundation of the Mission is clean tech production. There are promising steps throughout the worth chain. The budget introduces customs task exemptions on lithium-ion battery scrap, cobalt, and 12 other crucial minerals, protecting the supply of vital materials and referall.us reinforcing India’s position in worth chains.

Despite India’s growing tech environment, research and development (R&D) financial investments remain listed below 1% of GDP, compared to 2.4% in China and 3.5% in the US. Future jobs will need Industry 4.0 abilities, and India should prepare now. This budget plan tackles the space. A good start is the government allocating 20,000 crore to a private-sector-driven Research, Development, and Innovation (RDI) initiative. The spending plan recognises the transformative capacity of expert system (AI) by introducing the PM Research Fellowship, which will supply 10,000 fellowships for technological research in IITs and IISc with enhanced financial support. This, in addition to a Centre of Excellence for AI and 50,000 Atal Tinkering Labs in federal government schools, are positive actions towards a knowledge-driven economy.