Union Budget 2026-27: Industry Leaders’ Key Expectations for Infrastructure, Exports, Tourism, AI, and Digital Economy

The Union Budget 2026-27, set to be presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on February 1, 2026, is generating significant anticipation across key sectors of the Indian economy. As India aims for sustained growth amid global challenges, industry leaders are calling for targeted reforms in infrastructure planning, export competitiveness, tourism development, enterprise AI adoption, digital trust infrastructure, and more.

Industry experts from consulting firms, travel tech, process intelligence, enterprise technology, and digital sectors have shared their insights on priorities that could drive efficiency, job creation, and long-term economic resilience. Here are the key expectations and recommendations ahead of the Budget.

Tackling Infrastructure Cost and Time Overruns Through Better Planning

Large infrastructure projects in India continue to face substantial cost overruns (often 55%–60%) and time overruns (30%–70%), primarily due to issues like land acquisition, approvals, funding, and scope changes during execution. These stem from inadequate upfront planning, especially weak Detailed Project Reports (DPRs).

India allocates only 0.5%–1% of project costs to DPRs, compared to 5%–10% in countries that limit overruns to under 10%. Recent MoSPI data highlights cumulative cost overruns in large central projects reaching around ₹5.3 lakh crore (with recent reports showing escalations pushing revised costs higher, e.g., to ₹29.55 trillion in late 2025 with 22% overruns).

Anantha Keerthi, Senior Partner at Vector Consulting Group, emphasizes treating high-quality DPRs as a high-return investment:

“The upcoming Budget can address this by funding rigorous pre-construction planning and treating DPRs as a high-return investment. High-quality DPRs reduce delays, rework, and disputes, unlocking major savings and enabling India to build more infrastructure with the same resources… Even a modest 10%–15% reduction in this could unlock savings of ₹53,000 crore–₹80,000 crore, freeing up capital to fund additional projects without increasing budgetary outlays.”

Boosting pre-construction investments could significantly enhance project delivery and fiscal efficiency.

Reviving Competitiveness in Textiles and Garments

The textile and garments sector faces intense global price competition, volatile orders, and margin pressures from tariff-related discounts (e.g., in the US market). The industry seeks a stable, long-term export framework to retain customers, absorb pressures, and encourage investments.

P Senthilkumar, Senior Partner at Vector Consulting Group, outlines the needs:

“As the industry looks ahead to Budget 2026-2027, it seeks a predictable and long-term export framework, anchored in expanded trade agreements with key markets, targeted tariff relief, and clear, stable labour policies. Such measures are critical to enhancing workforce productivity, improving margins, de-risking fresh capacity expansion, and encouraging large-scale, job-intensive investments.”

These steps could help protect jobs and boost exports in one of India’s largest employment-generating sectors.

Strengthening Travel and Tourism Ecosystem

India’s travel and tourism sector supports millions of livelihoods in airlines, hospitality, transport, and allied services while driving regional development and cultural exchange. Stakeholders hope for continued emphasis on infrastructure, connectivity, and policies that improve ease of doing business.

Alok K Singh, Chairman & CEO of SNVA Traveltech (DBA Travomint), highlights priorities:

“We respectfully hope the Budget continues to prioritise infrastructure development, regional and last-mile connectivity, and policies that enhance ease of doing business. Continued focus on airport modernisation, rail and road connectivity, and digital travel infrastructure would significantly improve the overall travel experience for both domestic and international travellers. Supportive measures that enhance affordability, encourage domestic tourism, and strengthen inbound travel would further accelerate demand… Continued investments in skill development, sustainability initiatives, and technology adoption will enable the sector to improve service quality and global competitiveness.”

Such measures could accelerate demand and ensure sustainable growth for MSMEs and startups in the sector.

Enabling Enterprise AI and Process Intelligence

As enterprises move toward AI-driven operations, execution readiness remains key. Fragmented processes and system silos limit AI impact in areas like supply chains, finance, and manufacturing.

Kaushik Mitra, Vice President and Head of India Go-to-Market at Celonis India, stresses foundational support:

“The Budget could bring in an opportunity to directly enable Enterprise AI adoption by addressing execution readiness… Clear support for enterprise data modernization and an open, system-agnostic ecosystem would allow companies to free the process from system silos and embrace Process Intelligence… Stable and predictable tax and compliance frameworks will further enable long-term investment in technology and talent.”

Building Resilient Digital and AI Infrastructure

The enterprise technology ecosystem requires alignment of infrastructure, regulations, and talent for large-scale digital operations.

Sumed Marwaha, Managing Director at AHEAD India, points to emerging priorities:

“Continued focus on digital infrastructure, cloud ecosystems, and modern data platforms will help organisations run resilient hybrid environments… A key emerging priority is also the build-out of physical AI infrastructure and data centres across India. Supporting this growth will require a strong government focus on power availability, connectivity, land readiness, and regional infrastructure… Cybersecurity remains central… Equally important is sustained investment in industry-aligned skilling.”

Enhancing Trust in the Digital Economy

With rising digitization in banking, payments, and lending, stronger trust infrastructure is essential to combat fraud and ease onboarding.

Anil Tadimeti, Director of Strategy & Regulatory Affairs at Bureau, notes:

“The Union Budget has an opportunity to strengthen the trust infrastructure that enables secure growth at scale… A clear, well-funded roadmap for the next phase of Digital Public Infrastructure, backed by ecosystem-level risk and safety frameworks, must be prioritised to ensure institutions can scale securely while keeping the digital economy resilient and sustainable.”

Accelerating Deeptech and Manufacturing Startups

India’s startup ecosystem has advanced significantly, particularly in deeptech, advanced manufacturing, climate systems, and industrial innovation. Founders are demonstrating greater technical depth, ambition, and global relevance, with capital and talent converging and early validation emerging beyond software models.

However, scaling these businesses involves long development cycles, including certification, validation, extended pilots, and early deployments—where reliability, safety, and trust are critical for adoption. India’s national scale, mission-led government demand, and cost discipline offer unique advantages for early credibility and rapid learning.

Ankit Kedia, Founder and Lead Investor at Capital-A, calls for targeted support:

“What now needs attention is the execution layer. Scaling deeptech and manufacturing businesses requires support through long development cycles involving certification, validation, extended pilots, and early deployments… For this momentum to translate into sustained outcomes, the Union Budget must reinforce this execution ecosystem through shared testing and certification infrastructure, predictable regulatory pathways, and incentives aligned with longer gestation timelines. Such signals also help bring more domestic institutions and family offices into deeptech investing, ensuring that India’s innovation progress converts into durable industrial capability and long-term value creation.”

These measures could help convert innovation into global competitiveness and durable industrial strength.

As the Union Budget 2026 approaches on February 1, these expert inputs underscore the need for balanced, forward-looking policies that address execution challenges, boost sectoral competitiveness, foster innovation in emerging areas like deeptech, and lay the foundation for inclusive, sustainable growth. Industry stakeholders await announcements that could unlock efficiencies, create jobs, attract investment, and position India stronger on the global stage.

Last Updated on: Friday, January 23, 2026 6:31 pm by Business Max Team | Published by: Business Max Team on Friday, January 23, 2026 6:25 pm | News Categories: News, Business, Economic

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