Budget 2026 Expectations: What India’s Tech Leaders Are Watching

As India heads into Union Budget 2026, the conversation around technology is shifting from vision-setting to delivery. After years of policy intent around digital transformation, AI adoption, and manufacturing self-reliance, enterprise leaders now want clarity on how these ambitions will translate into scalable systems, skilled talent, and resilient infrastructure.

Across video technology, electronics manufacturing, AI skilling, automation, and data platforms, a common theme emerges: India’s digital economy is expanding rapidly, but its next phase depends on execution depth, how effectively technology moves from pilots to production, and from metros to the wider economy.

Digital Infrastructure Meets Operational Reality

For enterprises operating across airports, hospitals, smart cities, and large infrastructure projects, digital resilience is no longer abstract policy language—it is operational necessity.

Diya Girish, Sales Head & Director, India and SAARC, Milestone Systems, points to Budget 2026’s emphasis on scalable digital frameworks as a signal that India is preparing for more complex, interconnected environments.

“The direction outlined in the Union Budget 2026 reflects India’s continued commitment to building a digitally resilient and innovation-led economy. A strong emphasis on next-generation infrastructure, enterprise digitalisation, and technology-enabled operations will be key to strengthening India’s long-term growth and global competitiveness.

For organisations operating across complex environments, the focus on scalable digital frameworks and secure technology adoption creates meaningful opportunities to modernise operations while maintaining trust and reliability. At Milestone Systems, we see this as an important step toward enabling smarter, more connected ecosystems where video management software (VMS) plays a critical role in enhancing situational awareness, operational efficiency, and safety.

As India advances its digital ambitions across sectors such as hospitals, airports, smart cities, infrastructure, industry, transportation, and enterprise ecosystems, we look forward to supporting this journey with flexible, future-ready video solutions that align with evolving business and security needs.”

The emphasis here is less about surveillance and more about enterprise-grade visibility, a shift that reflects how video technology is increasingly embedded into operational workflows rather than standalone security systems.

Electronics Manufacturing: Beyond Price Sensitivity

While consumer electronics pricing often dominates public discourse, industry leaders argue that Budget 2026 is less about short-term relief and more about structural resilience.

Nikita Kumavat, co-founder and managing director of Brandworks Technologies, highlights how global AI-driven demand is reshaping component economics, independent of local taxation.

“Electronics prices are under pressure globally due to rising costs of critical components such as semiconductors and memory chips, driven by AI-led demand and ongoing supply-chain constraints, rather than any direct consumer-level taxation. These pressures are being felt across the industry.

Budget 2026 signals a clear shift toward strengthening India’s electronics manufacturing ecosystem, with an emphasis on long-term value creation rather than short-term price interventions. Selective policy and duty measures aimed at encouraging local manufacturing may have a near-term cost impact, but they are essential for reducing import dependence and improving resilience.

The next phase of India’s electronics growth lies in moving beyond assembly to integrated design, engineering, and scalable production.”

The message is clear: competitiveness will come not from cheaper imports, but from design-led manufacturing capability, a theme that aligns closely with India’s broader industrial policy goals.

AI Talent: From Volume to Viability

India’s AI narrative has often focused on scale, millions trained, thousands of courses launched. But enterprise leaders are increasingly calling attention to the gap between certification and deployability.

Raghav Gupta, CEO, Futurense, frames Budget 2026 as an opportunity to realign skilling with outcomes.

“As we look ahead to Budget 2026, India has a real opportunity to move from broad AI skilling to outcome-driven talent transformation. India already accounts for nearly 16% of the global AI talent pool, yet multiple industry reports show that fewer than 25% of graduates are job-ready for advanced digital and AI roles. This gap is not about intent or enrolments, but about real-world deployment and exposure.

With AI expected to add over USD 450 billion to India’s GDP by 2030, the Budget must prioritize tighter industry, academia integration, experiential learning, and incentives for enterprises to invest in AI adoption alongside workforce training. Policies that support AI infrastructure, applied research, and structured apprenticeship-style programs can significantly improve employability outcomes.

A future-ready Budget should view AI, education, and workforce transformation as a single continuum. Aligning higher education reform, skilling incentives, and enterprise adoption will be critical to ensuring India not only trains talent at scale, but also converts it into productive jobs and global competitiveness.”

This reflects a broader enterprise concern: talent supply exists, but production-ready capability does not.

Building AI Infrastructure as a Public Good

While skilling is one side of the equation, infrastructure remains a binding constraint—particularly compute, data access, and indigenous AI models.

Nakul Kundra, co-founder of Devnagri AI, underscores the gap between ambition and capacity.

“The Government of India’s vision to ‘Make AI in India’ and ‘Make AI Work for India’ signals a clear ambition to position the country as a serious global AI creator. Recent budgetary emphasis under MeitY on compute infrastructure, semiconductors, and AI talent is also an important step towards building this foundation.

However, critical structural gaps continue to constrain progress. High GPU costs, limited domestic compute capacity with India accounting for under 2 percent of global data centre capacity, the absence of scalable indigenous large language models trained on diverse Indian datasets, and gaps in advanced applied AI research and engineering talent remain key bottlenecks.

Going forward, budget policy must move decisively from intent to execution. This includes dedicated funding and policy support for language-first AI and Indian LLMs, clear frameworks for data dignity and consent-driven datasets, and targeted incentives to accelerate applied AI adoption across sectors such as BFSI, D2C, e commerce, and governance. Equally critical is treating core AI infrastructure, such as compute and data platforms as digital public goods backed by sustained public investment, rather than relying solely on private capital to drive national AI capability.”

The call here is explicit: AI infrastructure must be foundational, not optional.

From Pilots to Production in the Enterprise

Automation and AI adoption inside enterprises often stall after proof-of-concept. Budget 2026, according to enterprise software leaders, could be the lever that pushes deployment at scale.

Dominic Pereira, VP, Product Management, Automation Anywhere, connects fiscal policy directly to enterprise transformation.

“Automation and AI are now central to India’s enterprise competitiveness and long-term economic growth. Budget 2026 presents a timely opportunity to align fiscal priorities and accelerate the shift from AI pilots to scaled, enterprise-wide adoption.

Sustained and responsible AI growth will depend on targeted investment in data governance, secure digital infrastructure, and industry-academia skilling programs. Building on existing AI Centres of Excellence, the Budget can strengthen training and reskilling efforts, preparing the workforce for transition while ensuring AI delivers broad societal benefits. This will also support indigenous innovation and help address critical challenges in sectors such as healthcare and education.

Beyond efficiency gains, automation and AI enable higher-value work, global competitiveness, and more inclusive growth. Consistent policy support across governance, skills, and ecosystem development can accelerate enterprise transformation, attract global investment, and create high-quality digital jobs—laying the foundation for an ethical, resilient, and future-ready digital economy.”

Data, Trust, and the Geography of AI Growth

Finally, enterprise leaders caution that AI scale without data discipline risks uneven outcomes.

Varun Babbar, VP and India MD, Qlik, argues that Budget 2026 will define whether India becomes an AI builder—or remains a talent supplier.

“India's AI moment has arrived, but Budget 2026 will determine whether we lead or follow. Nearly half of Indian organizations now have AI in production, but scaling remains the challenge, not because of technology gaps, but due to fragmented data infrastructure and acute skills shortages.

The Budget must move beyond announcements to execution on three fronts:

First, establish clear data governance standards. AI is only as reliable as the data powering it. We need regulatory frameworks that ensure data quality, security, and interoperability across sectors, especially in banking, healthcare, and public services where AI decisions directly impact lives.

Second, fund regional AI infrastructure. The IndiaAI Mission is a strong start, but its impact depends on reaching beyond metros. Budget 2026 should allocate resources to establish at least 20 AI Centres of Excellence in Tier 2 and 3 cities, creating local innovation hubs rather than concentrating talent in Bengaluru and Hyderabad alone.

Third, invest in practical skilling at scale. We don't need more theoretical AI courses; we need programs that train engineers, data professionals, and domain experts to deploy AI responsibly in real-world settings. Industry-academia partnerships with outcome-based funding can accelerate this.

Without these foundations, AI investments will deliver inconsistent results, and India will remain a talent exporter rather than an innovation leader. The opportunity isn't just economic, it's about building AI solutions designed for Indian challenges, from multilingual interfaces to rural healthcare diagnostics.

This Budget can set the trajectory for the next decade of India's AI economy. The question is whether we'll invest in the infrastructure that makes AI trustworthy and scalable, or continue experimenting while others execute.”

The Budget Signal Enterprises Are Watching

Taken together, these perspectives suggest Budget 2026 is less about new slogans and more about closing execution gaps between infrastructure and adoption, talent and productivity, and intent and outcomes.

For India’s enterprise technology ecosystem, the next phase will be defined not by how many initiatives are announced, but by how many systems actually scale.