Quietly enabling India’s tech journey

BVR Mohan Reddy, Founder Chairman, Cyient Ltd & Former Chairman, Nasscom
| Photograph Credit score:
BIJOY GHOSH

They’re typically judged by what they announce; their deeper impression, nevertheless, lies in what they quietly allow. Seen by way of this lens, the Union Finances 2026 represents a significant step in India’s evolving expertise journey. At a time of fast technological change, fragile international provide chains, and strategic competitors amongst nations, the Finances indicators a shift away from short-term fixes in the direction of constructing sturdy capabilities. Its emphasis on depth— throughout manufacturing, digital infrastructure, innovation, and companies — suggests rising coverage confidence in India’s means to compete meaningfully in international expertise worth chains over the long run.

Within the semiconductor sector, the Finances underlines India’s dedication to construct a globally related ecosystem by transferring past fundamental meeting in the direction of design-led innovation, superior manufacturing, and deeper integration throughout the worth chain. Strengthened assist underneath the Semiconductor Mission, together with incentives for fabless design, superior packaging, supplies, and tools, displays a recognition that expertise sovereignty can’t be achieved by way of remoted interventions. This route aligns with international efforts to diversify chip provide chains and cut back focus dangers. By explicitly linking semiconductors with synthetic intelligence, electronics manufacturing, and demanding infrastructure, the Finances locations the sector on the centre of India’s financial, technological, and strategic priorities.

Information centres, more and more central to digital economies worldwide, are more and more recognised as essential infrastructure. The Finances gives larger certainty on information localisation norms, long-term tax remedy, and facilitation for international cloud service suppliers, strengthening India’s attractiveness as a vacation spot for large-scale digital infrastructure. Measures that handle dependable energy provide, renewable vitality use, and high-quality connectivity enhance the business viability of such investments. Encouraging hyperscalers and enterprise gamers to find information centres in India ensures the nation just isn’t merely an finish marketplace for digital companies but in addition an energetic host for the infrastructure that helps cloud computing, AI purposes, cybersecurity, and digital public platforms.

The Finances additionally displays an evolution in how India views its start-up ecosystem. The emphasis shifts from the early years of formation to the extra demanding part of scaling, sustainability, and management in deep-technology domains comparable to AI, semiconductors, local weather expertise, and superior manufacturing. Continued coverage assist, alongside enhancements in tax certainty, compliance simplicity, and entry to development capital, is more likely to strengthen confidence throughout the start-up worth chain. More and more, start-ups are being recognised not as peripheral experiments, however as integral contributors to innovation, employment creation, and productiveness development.

Supporting these sectoral initiatives are essential reforms geared toward enhancing the competitiveness of India’s IT and expertise companies trade. The enlargement of the protected harbour threshold, the transfer in the direction of a uniform revenue margin throughout IT service classes, and the dedication to sooner decision of advance pricing agreements collectively handle long-standing considerations round tax uncertainty and disputes. These steps enhance predictability for multinational purchasers and buyers, reinforcing India’s standing as a dependable and long-term base for international IT and engineering companies.

Finally, the worth of Finances 2026 will probably be formed much less by the scale of particular person incentives and extra by the consistency of execution and coverage continuity. By strengthening foundational applied sciences, supporting innovation because it scales, and lowering long-standing frictions in taxation and compliance, the Finances displays a extra assured and sturdy strategy to expertise coverage. If sustained over the approaching years, these measures may help India steadily transfer up international expertise worth chains — an important requirement if the nation is to understand its financial and technological ambitions because it approaches 2047.

BVR Mohan Reddy, Founder Chairman, Cyient Ltd & Former Chairman, Nasscom

Printed on February 1, 2026