3 months ago
56
ARTICLE AD BOX
Finance curate Nirmala Sitharaman
NEW DELHI: Union concern curate Nirmala Sitharaman connected Sunday delivered a 1 hr 25 infinitesimal presumption of the Union Budget 2026-27, marking her grounds ninth consecutive budget. She made respective large announcements covering income tax, defence, railways, MSMEs, healthcare, and more.The fund was hailed arsenic "historic" by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who described it arsenic a "high formation toward Viksit Bharat" by 2047, soon aft FM Sitharaman's presumption successful the Lok Sabha.
Here are the 10 large announcements from Union Budget 2026
- Defence - The Union Budget 2026 has allocated Rs 7.85 lakh crore to the Defence Ministry, up from Rs 6.81 lakh crore past year. Out of this, Rs 2.19 lakh crore volition spell toward modernising the equipped forces, including Rs 63,733 crore for craft and engines and Rs 25,023 crore for the Navy. The remaining Rs 5.54 lakh crore volition screen moving expenses, including Rs 1.71 lakh crore for pensions.
- Railways - The FM Sitharaman projected 7 high-speed obstruction corridors connecting large cities—Mumbai-Pune, Pune-Hyderabad, Hyderabad-Bengaluru, Hyderabad-Chennai, Chennai-Bengaluru, Delhi-Varanasi, and Varanasi-Siliguri—to beforehand an environmentally sustainable rider system. The Railways has been allocated a beardown superior expenditure of Rs 2,93,030 crore to boost infrastructure-driven maturation and fast-track the imaginativeness of Viksit Bharat. She besides announced a caller dedicated freight corridor linking Dankuni successful West Bengal to Surat successful Gujarat to guarantee businesslike and eco-friendly question of goods crossed the country.
- Income Tax - Sitharaman announced that the Income Tax Act, 2025 volition travel into effect from April 1, replacing the six-decade-old taxation law. The caller instrumentality simplifies rules and forms, making compliance easier for taxpayers, and is gross neutral with nary alteration successful taxation rates. It cuts sections by astir 50%, removes ambiguities, replaces the appraisal twelvemonth with a azygous "tax year," and allows TDS refunds adjacent if ITRs are filed precocious without penalties.
- Rare-earth - The Budget projected supporting mineral-rich states similar Odisha, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu successful mounting up dedicated uncommon world corridors. This builds connected the ‘Scheme to Promote Manufacturing of Sintered Rare Earth Permanent Magnets’ launched successful November 2025, which has a fiscal outlay of Rs 7,280 crore. The strategy aims to make 6,000 metric tonnes per twelvemonth of integrated REPM manufacturing capableness successful India, covering the implicit accumulation concatenation from rare-earth oxides to finished magnets.
- Health - The Union wellness ministry has been allocated Rs 1,06,530.42 crore successful Budget 2026-27, a 10% summation from past year, according to quality bureau PTI. FM Sitharaman announced a strategy to acceptable up 5 determination aesculapian hubs with private-sector enactment to boost aesculapian tourism. Existing allied healthcare institutions volition beryllium upgraded, and caller ones established, grooming 1 lakh professionals crossed 10 disciplines implicit the adjacent 5 years. A Rs 10,000 crore concern projected implicit the adjacent 5 years to marque India a biopharma manufacturing hub, found 1,000 objective proceedings sites, and fortify the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation.
- Boost to MSMEs - The curate projected a three-pronged strategy to boost MSMEs, including a dedicated Rs 10,000 crore money to assistance them turn arsenic 'Champions'. In her Budget speech, she said the Modi government’s reforms purpose to make jobs, summation productivity, and accelerate growth. She outlined “three kartavyas”: accelerate and prolong economical growth, fulfil aspirations and physique capacity, and Sabka Sath, Sabka Vikas. Under the first, she highlighted six interventions, including enactment for Champion MSMEs.
- Education - It besides included boost to acquisition with a National Institute of Design successful eastbound India, 5 assemblage townships adjacent concern corridors, and a girls’ hostel successful each territory for STEM students. Four scope facilities for astrophysics probe volition beryllium acceptable up, and a high-powered 'Education to Employment and Enterprise Committee' volition align skills with jobs and emerging technologies similar AI. Under 'Orange Economy', FM besides projected contented creator labs successful schools and colleges to make 'future-ready jobs'.
- Banking - A "High Level Committee connected Banking for Viksit Bharat" was projected to reappraisal the assemblage and align it with India’s adjacent signifier of growth. She said the committee volition absorption connected fiscal stability, inclusion, and user protection. Highlighting the spot of India’s banking sector, she noted beardown equilibrium sheets, grounds profitability, improved plus quality, and sum of implicit 98 per cent of villages.
- Agriculture - The Budget besides outlined large betterment for the agriculture sector, the FM announced announced the motorboat of 'Bharat Vistar' a multilingual AI instrumentality acceptable to integrate AgriStack portals and ICAR's cultivation practices with precocious AI systems, transforming however farmers entree resources and marque decisions.
- Khelo India - Under Budget 2026-27, the concern curate unveiled the Khelo India Mission to revamp the sports assemblage implicit the adjacent decade, focusing connected endowment identification, manager training, sports science, and modern infrastructure development.
