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

There were heightened expectations from Union Budget 2025-26 regarding building on the momentum of last year’s 9 top priorities – and it has provided. With India marching towards understanding the Viksit Bharat vision, this budget takes decisive steps for high-impact growth. The Economic Survey’s estimate of 6.4% real GDP growth and retail inflation softening from 5.4% in FY24 to 4.9% in FY25 enhances India’s position as the world’s fastest-growing significant economy. The budget for the coming financial has actually capitalised on prudent fiscal management and enhances the four essential pillars of India’s economic resilience – jobs, energy security, manufacturing, and employment innovation.

India needs to develop 7.85 million non-agricultural tasks annually till 2030 – and this budget plan steps up. It has actually boosted labor force capabilities through the launch of 5 National Centres of Excellence for Skilling and aims to line up training with “Make for India, Make for the World” producing requirements. Additionally, a growth of capability in the IITs will accommodate 6,500 more trainees, guaranteeing a stable pipeline of technical skill. It also recognises the function of micro and little business (MSMEs) in generating employment. The improvement of credit assurances for employment micro and little enterprises from 5 crore to 10 crore, unlocks an additional 1.5 lakh crore in loans over five years. This, paired with personalized credit cards for employment micro business with a 5 lakh limit, will enhance capital access for small companies. While these measures are good, the scaling of industry-academia partnership as well as fast-tracking employment training will be essential to making sure sustained job development.

India remains extremely based on Chinese imports for solar modules, electric vehicle (EV) batteries, and crucial electronic parts, exposing the sector to geopolitical threats and trade barriers. This budget plan takes this difficulty head-on. It designates 81,174 crore to the energy sector, a substantial increase from the 63,403 crore in the present fiscal, employment signalling a major push towards strengthening supply chains and reducing import reliance. The exemptions for 35 extra capital products needed for EV battery production contributes to this. The decrease of import duty on solar cells from 25% to 20% and solar modules from 40% to 20% alleviates costs for developers while India scales up domestic production capacity. The allotment to the ministry of new and renewable energy (MNRE) has actually increased 53% to 26,549 crore, with the PM Surya Ghar Muft Bijli Yojana seeing an 80% jump to 20,000 crore. These measures provide the definitive push, but to genuinely achieve our environment objectives, we must likewise speed up investments in battery recycling, crucial mineral extraction, and strategic supply chain integration.

With capital expense approximated at 4.3% of GDP, the highest it has been for the past 10 years, this budget plan lays the structure for India’s production revival. Initiatives such as the National Manufacturing Mission will provide enabling policy support for small, employment medium, and employment large markets and will even more solidify the Make-in-India vision by enhancing domestic worth chains. Infrastructure stays a bottleneck for makers. The budget addresses this with huge financial investments in logistics to minimize supply chain costs, which presently stand at 13-14% of GDP, substantially greater than that of most of the established countries (~ 8%). A cornerstone of the Mission is clean tech production. There are promising measures throughout the worth chain. The spending plan presents customizeds duty exemptions on lithium-ion battery scrap, cobalt, and 12 other critical minerals, protecting the supply of vital materials and reinforcing India’s position in global clean-tech worth chains.

Despite India’s flourishing tech environment, research and development (R&D) investments stay below 1% of GDP, compared to 2.4% in China and 3.5% in the US. Future jobs will need Industry 4.0 capabilities, and India must prepare now. This budget plan deals with the gap. A good start is the federal government assigning 20,000 crore to a private-sector-driven Research, Development, and Innovation (RDI) initiative. The budget plan acknowledges the transformative capacity of synthetic intelligence (AI) by introducing the PM Research Fellowship, which will offer 10,000 fellowships for technological research in IITs and IISc with boosted financial backing. This, along with a Centre of Excellence for AI and 50,000 Atal Tinkering Labs in government schools, are positive steps towards a knowledge-driven economy.