Union Budget 2026: A budget for difficult times

Union Budget 2026 aims to boost economic growth, enhance productivity, and support poll-bound States with infrastructure and reforms.

While acknowledging the strains created by the external global environment, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Sunday (February 1, 2026) presented Budget 2026, with the aim to increase productivity across sectors and ensure employment generation. 

Union Budget 2026: Follow the highlights from February 1, 2026

Presenting her record ninth consecutive Union Budget, Ms. Sitharaman said India must remain deeply integrated with global markets, exporting more and attracting stable long-term investment. The Budget also announced several infrastructure projects, including some that would benefit the poll-bound States of Tamil Nadu, Odisha, West Bengal, and Andhra Pradesh.

Notably, the Budget did not include any major direct tax rate relaxations, either for individuals or corporations. It included several customs duty reductions aimed at boosting exports of marine, leather, and textile products, and speeding up India’s energy transition.

“This Budget being the first Budget in the second quarter of the 21st Century, also leading to Viksit Bharat 2047, we are laying the path and giving a push to the economy to maintain the growth momentum,” Ms. Sitharaman said in her post-Budget press conference. “For that sustained growth, primarily we are looking at building the ecosystem with structural reforms to make sure we create an environment to increase productivity and make sure employment is generated.”

In order to achieve these goals, Ms. Sitharaman said the Budget was structured along three kartavyas or duties. “Our first kartavya is to accelerate and sustain economic growth, by enhancing productivity and competitiveness, and building resilience to volatile global dynamics,” she said in her Budget speech in Parliament. The second kartavya, she added,  was to fulfil the aspirations of the Indian people and build their capacity.