Rajeev Singh, Pankaj Rana, Rahul Garg, Srividya Kannan, Sameer Kanodia, Siddhartha Abburi, Chanakya Bellam, Nandagopal P, Taranbir Singh, Hiren Shah, Amit Mahajan, Raj Kumar Medimi, Murali Mantravadi, and Madhu Rajputra Peravalli share expectations
As India approaches the Union Budget 2026, leaders across technology, manufacturing, logistics, defence, energy, and deep tech are calling for policy clarity that goes beyond short-term stimulus and focuses on long-term capability building. With digital public infrastructure firmly in place, industry voices now emphasise the need to deepen innovation, manufacturing competitiveness, R&D intensity, and global relevance.
Technology, AI, and Digital Infrastructure
Rajeev Singh, Managing Director, BenQ India and South Asia, said expectations from the Budget are centred on education technology, local manufacturing, and skilling.
“The Union Budget 2026–27 will boldly advance India’s Viksit Bharat@2047 vision by prioritizing transformative investments in education technology, youth skilling, and middle-class prosperity essential catalysts for the consumer electronics and edtech sectors. As a pioneer in monitors, projectors, and interactive flat panels (IFPs) that power modern homes, hybrid offices, and smart classrooms across the nation, we anticipate a comprehensive strategy that aligns fiscal measures with our sector’s growth trajectory
In particular, we foresee a substantial allocation under PM SHRI and Samagra Shiksha schemes to revolutionize smart classrooms, mandating at least 50% local procurement of IFPs and projectors to equip 1.5 lakh schools and transform hybrid learning for 20 million students, enabling brands like ours to deploy over 2.5 lakh units annually. Complementing this, an enhanced PLI 2.0 scheme with ₹10,000 crore outlay would offer 7–10% incentives for localizing advanced 4K/8K panels, laser projection technology, and eye-care monitors, slashing import dependence from 45% to under 10% while scaling manufacturing capacity.
Moreover, a dedicated skilling fund for display manufacturing, AV integration, and optics training would empower the upskilling of over 4 lakh youth across 20 Tier-2/3 hubs, generating 6 lakh direct and indirect jobs in the ecosystem.”
Pankaj Rana, CEO, Hisense India, highlighted the importance of localisation and vocational skilling.
“The Union Budget 2026–27 offers a transformative platform to operationalize India’s Viksit Bharat@2047 vision, with youth skilling and middle-class empowerment as foundational pillars that will cascade benefits to high-growth sectors like consumer electronics. As Hisense India accelerates its Make in India commitment producing advanced MiniLED TVs, smart ACs, refrigerators, and washing machines we anticipate a few targeted measures to unlock our sector’s potential.
For instance, an increase in allocation for electronics by 20–25% with simplified norms for next-gen components like RGB MiniLED panels and AI chipsets would enable us to localize 60% of TV production value by FY27. Moreover, a dedicated fund for vocational training in semiconductors, display tech, and assembly lines, potentially partnering with tech brands, would also serve to skill 5 lakh youth annually and create 2 million jobs in the electronics value chain.
Furthermore, fast-tracking electronics parks in Tier-2/3 cities with subsidized power and land, plus duty drawbacks on exports would help target $50 billion in TV and appliance shipments by 2028, aligning with global innovation.”
Ravi Agarwal, Co-founder and Managing Director, Cellecor, emphasised stability and localisation.
“The Union Budget 2026–27 is a pivotal opportunity to accelerate India’s Viksit Bharat@2047 vision by reinforcing domestic manufacturing as the backbone of the consumer electronics sector. For Cellecor, which is steadily expanding its Make in India footprint across smart TVs, air conditioners, refrigerators, and kitchen appliances, policy stability and targeted manufacturing support will be critical to building long-term scale and competitiveness.
A sharper focus on electronics manufacturing incentives, rationalised component duties, and simplified input norms can meaningfully deepen localisation and help the industry progress towards 50–60 percent domestic value addition. Strengthening India’s manufacturing ecosystem through investments in skilling, electronics clusters, and MSME supplier networks will be essential to move up the value chain and reduce import dependence.
With Tier-2 and Tier-3 markets emerging as the next engines of both consumption and production growth, a manufacturing-first policy approach can enable Indian brands to serve domestic demand while building globally competitive capabilities.”
AI, Data, and Enterprise Technology
Srividya Kannan, Founder and CEO, Avaali, stressed the importance of trust, privacy, and AI adoption.
“As India prepares for Union Budget 2026, the focus should continue on building a robust ecosystem for technology, innovation, and trust. We hope to see continued support for AI research and development, including grants, incentives, and policy measures that encourage enterprises to adopt AI and automation, strengthen efficiencies, and make data-driven decisions. Strengthening cybersecurity infrastructure and frameworks will be essential as digital and AI workflows become more pervasive.
India’s Data Protection and Privacy landscape also marks a critical juncture. While the DPDP Rules introduce global-standard protections, enterprises face the challenge of aligning compliance with trust. Budget 2026 could help by supporting technology-driven approaches to privacy, promoting architectures where consent, encryption, access controls, and automated governance are foundational, not performative.
Continued focus on the Global Capability Center ecosystem, Tier-II and Tier-III city growth, and future-ready talent development, including initiatives promoting women in tech, remains crucial.”
Sameer Kanodia, Managing Director and CEO, Lumina Datamatics Limited, pointed to AI-led productivity in publishing and commerce.
“As India prepares for the Union Budget, we expect a sharper policy focus on strengthening digital and AI-led infrastructure that underpins knowledge services, publishing, and the fast-growing retail and e-commerce ecosystem. Continued investments in advanced technologies such as AI, automation, and cloud platforms will be critical to improving productivity across content creation, digital publishing workflows, and large-scale retail operations.
For the publishing sector, targeted support for technology-enabled content production, research digitisation, and global content services exports can help Indian companies deepen their role in the international knowledge economy.
Aligned with our expectations, a strong emphasis on AI-focused skill development, R&D incentives, and ease of doing business for technology-driven service providers will enable companies to continue building globally competitive solutions from India.”
Nandagopal P, CEO, Asymmetri; CTO, Gacsym Ventures; and Limited Partner, Arya Ventures, framed Budget 2026 as a strategic inflection point.
“India is approaching Budget 2026 at a stage where its vast digital scale must now evolve into true global digital leadership. Over the last decade, we’ve built remarkable digital public infrastructure, but global competitiveness will be decided by depth of compute, AI capability, R&D, cybersecurity, and talent.
The approval of the ₹1 lakh crore RDI Scheme is a bold and timely step, but capital alone will not create global technology leaders. Budget 2026 must provide the policy backbone, stronger R&D tax incentives, clear IP commercialisation pathways, and support for deep-tech venture funding, so that innovation can move faster from lab to market.
If Budget 2026 gets this right, India can shift from being a large digital market to becoming a true digital superpower.”
Chanakya Bellam, Board Member, AION-Tech Solutions Ltd., highlighted AI and full-stack capabilities.
“As India prepares its Union Budget for 2026–27, AION-Tech Solutions urges policymakers to place future-ready technologies at the center of national economic planning. Strategic investments in artificial intelligence, machine learning, full-stack digital platforms, business intelligence, and cloud infrastructure will be critical for sustained economic growth, job creation, and global competitiveness.
To fully realize this potential, proactive governance is essential, including R&D incentives for AI and digital startups, stronger public-private partnerships, large-scale skill development, and responsible frameworks that balance innovation with ethics, privacy, and security.”
Logistics, Manufacturing, Energy, and Defence
Taranbir Singh, Founder and CEO, Bharat Supply, spoke on logistics and rural infrastructure.
“As India’s consumption story deepens beyond metros, the Union Budget holds an opportunity to meaningfully strengthen last-mile and beyond-metro logistics. A key step would be to simplify and rationalise GST for logistics, particularly last-mile delivery services, to lower operating costs and unlock new private investment.
Equally important is sustained focus on rural consumption, where logistics is the critical backbone connecting farmers, MSMEs, and small retailers to markets.”
Hiren Shah, Managing Director, Jyoti Global Plast, addressed MSMEs and defence manufacturing.
“The importance of MSMEs is growing at a fast pace in the economy. The industry is emerging as a key pillar supporting India’s manufacturing renaissance in the defence sector and beyond. Targeted capex incentives, output-linked support, rationalised taxation, and R&D enablement can help MSMEs scale indigenous technologies and accelerate adoption.”
Amit Mahajan, Director, Paras Defence and Space Technologies Limited, called for deeper industry-led R&D.
“As India accelerates its transition from import dependent to a technology-driven and self-reliant defence manufacturing ecosystem, the Union Budget 2026 must deepen industry-led research, design and development… Beyond core defence platforms, strong support is needed for drones, counter-drone systems, and aerospace technologies.”
Raj Kumar Medimi, Executive Director, Trinity Cleantech, focused on power infrastructure.
“The upcoming Union Budget presents a critical opportunity to strengthen the country’s power and energy infrastructure at the grassroots level… Incentivizing high-efficiency, low-loss transformers and supporting indigenously manufactured electrical equipment can significantly reduce long-term system costs for DISCOMs.”
Murali Mantravadi, Joint Managing Director, Energy Bots, emphasised long-term tech capacity.
“India’s digital ecosystem has reached a structural inflection point… This budget must treat AI, cloud, cybersecurity, and deep tech as national digital infrastructure.”
Madhu Rajputra Peravalli, Co-founder, Troogue, addressed startups and skilling.
“We keep talking about enabling startups, but real scale comes when the government becomes a customer, not just a regulator… Strengthening R&D tax incentives for startups building original IP will boost innovation.”
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