The finance minister’s eighth Budget signals a decisive shift towards structural reforms, aligning with India’s trajectory as the world’s fastest-growing economy. With sweeping changes across taxation, energy, urban development, financial services, and regulatory frameworks, it sets the stage for enhanced global competitiveness and long-term growth.
At the heart of this strategy is the National Manufacturing Mission, designed to strengthen India’s industrial competitiveness across enterprises of all sizes. By refining execution roadmaps, at both central and state levels, the initiative enhances productivity, reduces costs, upskills the workforce, supports medium and small enterprises (MSMEs), and drives technological innovation, all while ensuring adherence to global quality benchmarks. The government’s ambition is clear—to establish India as a formidable player in global manufacturing supply chains.
Infrastructure remains central to the country’s economic expansion. The government is balancing public-private partnerships and asset monetisation to unlock capital, mandating infrastructure ministries to develop three-year PPP project pipelines, extending Rs 1.5 lakh crore in interest-free loans to states for capital expenditure, and launching the second asset monetisation plan targeting Rs 10 lakh crore for reinvestment in new projects. The continued focus on highways, railways, ports and digital connectivity systematically addresses legacy bottlenecks, improving logistics efficiency, reducing business costs, and strengthening both domestic and international market linkages.
A skilled workforce is critical to economic and industrial progress. Recognising this, the Budget establishes five national centres of excellence for skill development, aligned with the ‘Make in India’ vision. These centres will work with global industry experts to develop curricula, train instructors, implement certification systems, and benchmark performance, ensuring India’s workforce is equipped to meet international standards.
The government has also acknowledged the strategic importance of securing critical minerals, essential to the future of advanced manufacturing, particularly for batteries, renewable energy systems, and electric vehicles. Ensuring a stable supply of these resources is fundamental to long-term growth, innovation, and energy transition. The Budget introduces measures to strengthen India’s access to these raw materials, including a new policy to extract minerals from mining byproducts, customs duty reductions on 25 key minerals, and a $1.88-billion investment strategy aimed at expanding domestic production and securing vital inputs such as lithium.
With 5.7 crore units employing 7.5 crore people, MSMEs remain the backbone of India’s industrial ecosystem, anchoring domestic value chains through their supply of components and services to larger industries. The Budget strengthens their role by expanding investment and turnover thresholds, increasing credit guarantee cover to Rs 20 crore, and introducing Rs 5 lakh credit cards for micro enterprises to facilitate working capital access. By integrating MSMEs into formal supply chains, these measures enhance access to technology, standardisation, and cost efficiencies, fostering a more resilient and globally competitive industrial base.
The Union Budget 2025-26 presents a clear roadmap for India’s economic transformation. By advancing manufacturing competitiveness, infrastructure development, workforce skilling, resource security, and MSME empowerment, the government has adopted a disciplined, long-term approach to growth. These structural reforms, paired with targeted investments, create a strong foundation for India to sustain its position as the world’s fastest-growing economy, while ensuring inclusive and sustainable development in the years ahead.

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