From News Desk
Soon the Budget session shall be upon us and we’ll have another budget for the coming Financial Year from this government. This is an occasion for serious reflection on the situation unfolding before us and for executing some workable blueprint to take the economy forward. Especially, the financial measures taken by the Trump administration and the EU are to be taken as a challenge. The government has to seriously work a way out of the rising inflation. Further, what paths are available to us for the IT sector and all its segments? How to take the various sectors forward and bring down the inflation? How to make India a leader in economy? These are the questions that need to be addressed.
The IT industry leaders have expressed great optimism about India’s economic future path, especially with IT in focus. Following are some of their expectations from the Budget –
“As India embarks on a critical phase of its manufacturing and industrial evolution, the next leap will be driven by large-scale, repeatable automation deployments rather than isolated pilots. Policy consistency, enhanced industrial corridors and the continued thrust under Make in India have provided a solid base. Now the emphasis must turn to creating globally competitive manufacturing abilities which are driven by smart automation.
Software-led automation is increasingly becoming the driver of this evolution as it brings robotics, systems and workflows together into a unified execution layer. Modular automation is being implemented in live brownfield settings to enhance throughput, consistency and operational reliability, as well as permit effective human-machine cooperation.
With Union Budget 2026 approaching, this momentum can be further fuelled by continued policy support of manufacturing-based R&D, wider automation, and greater indigenisation of hardware, software, and systems integration. With India shifting beyond automation deployment to automation IP design and ownership, smart factories and agile supply chains will characterize its leadership in the advanced manufacturing.”
—Prateek Jain, Co-Founder & COO, Addverb
“India stands at a pivotal moment in its AI journey, with the AI ecosystem entering a phase where scale, trust and global competitiveness will define the next decade; and the Union Budget 2026 should reinforce the nation’s ambition to become a global AI innovation hub. We expect the Budget to prioritise strategic investments in foundational infrastructure — particularly in world-class data centres, Cloud ecosystems and sustainable high-performance computing — that can unlock enterprise-grade AI adoption across sectors, efficiently and responsibly. Enhancing policy clarity and regulatory certainty for AI deployment and data governance will accelerate private-sector investment and innovation, while targeted incentives and support for R&D, early-stage AI ventures and domestic IP creation will help India move from being a consumer of global AI to a significant creator.
Equally important is ecosystem-wide support, including robust skilling initiatives that prepare India’s diverse workforce for an AI-augmented economy; and alignment of AI frameworks with ethical and inclusive growth goals. By focusing on infrastructure, policy and human capital, the Union Budget can catalyse next-generation digital services to accelerate India’s transition into a globally competitive AI economy and ensure that India’s AI growth benefits every sector — from healthcare to manufacturing to public services.”
—Sachin Panicker, Chief AI Officer, Fulcrum Digital
“India’s digital economy continues to grow rapidly, requiring a commitment to cybersecurity as a fundamental component of creating an economy built on trust, economic growth and resilience as a nation. With budget 2026, we are now in a position to elevate cybersecurity as a strategic priority and make targeted investments to build cyber resilience across multiple sectors including BFSI, healthcare, government, MSMEs and others.
We want to see continued policy support for AI based threat detection and ransomware prevention, as well as secure Cloud adoption. This should also include incentives for the MSME sector to assist in improving their security posture. Additionally, it is essential to continue investing in developing cybersecurity skills, as well as developing stronger relationships between the public and private sectors to facilitate sharing of threat intelligence and help keep India’s future in the digital space secure and resilient.”
—Sunil Kr Sharma, MD & VP, Sales (India & SAARC), Sophos
“As we approach India’s Union Budget 2026, we hope the Government will prioritise measures that strengthen both our technology ecosystem and our cyber resilience, especially critical after the surge in cyberattacks India experienced in 2025. We look forward to enhanced incentives for homegrown tech innovators through expanded PLI schemes covering emerging sectors like secure AI and cybersecurity infrastructure, alongside continued support for R&D in areas vital to national security. The introduction of India’s DPDP Act has underscored the urgency of data protection.
Budget 2026 presents an opportunity to support indigenous software product companies like eScan with improved ease of doing business, tax certainty and targeted fiscal support. Strategic investments in cybersecurity infrastructure, datacentres, and AI governance frameworks will empower Indian software brands to scale globally while contributing meaningfully to India’s digital economy and national security.”
—Govind Rammurthy, CEO & MD, eScan
“As we move from vision to execution, Budget 2026 must recognize that Data Centers are the new sovereign territory and AI is the new electricity. While the projected 1.7 GW capacity is a milestone, our focus must shift from just ‘housing’ hardware to ‘powering’ intelligence. To truly build an self-reliant AI ecosystem, we need a Production Linked Incentive (PLI) for Computing that prioritises indigenous Cloud platforms over foreign hyperscalers.
By treating AI infrastructure as a strategic national asset – similar to highways or power grids – we can ensure that India’s data remains within India’s legal framework, securing our digital sovereignty for decades to come.”
—Narendra Sen, Founder & CEO, RackBank & NeevCloud
“AI and digital are no longer peripheral skills; they are the core gateway to jobs and competitiveness. As digital learning continues to play a central role in India’s skilling journey, improving affordability will be key to unlocking its full potential. Today, most online courses fall under the 18% GST bracket, which impacts price accessibility at scale. Rationalising GST on verified digital learning programmes to a 5% bracket would make high-quality AI-enabled education more affordable, accelerate widespread adoption and empower training providers and startups to scale sustainably in support of India’s talent ambitions.
At the same time, the nation must invest more in people. As a skilling-first enabler, we urge the government to set a clear target of 6% of GDP for education, to be delivered through higher absolute allocations that prioritise digital infrastructure, public–private skilling partnerships, and hard-to-reach geographies. India’s skilling gaps are well identified now, and this is a crucial time where we need a national push that combines fiscal incentives for low-cost digital learning with a sustained increase in public education investment to deliver both equity and economic returns.”
—Pankaj Jathar, Chief Executive Officer, NIIT
The above comments show that the industry leaders have clearly thought about every aspect of industrial challenges, especially those related to the IT. They have given suggestions on the skilling, cybersecurity, Cloud, Dtacentre, MSMEs, GST, manufacturing and practically every segment of importance.
The government will do well to take these considerations into account.
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