Budget of Mega Dreams: 5 Key Sectoral Updates You Shouldn't Miss

Budget 2026: Amid domestic demand anchoring India's growth story, the Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's ninth consecutive budget speech tabled in parliament on Sunday Feb 1, entailed several key sectoral initiatives from Rs 10,000 crore SME fund to increasing the defence outlay to Rs 7.84 lakh crore.

FM Nirmala Sitharaman's Top 5 Budget 2026 Announcements

Defence Sector: The overall capital outlay rose 209% from Rs 2.53 lakh crore in 2012 to Rs 7.84 lakh crore in 2026, including Rs 2.19 lakh crore allocated to defence forces for modernisation. The Defence Ministry also has several major projects in the pipeline, like the contracts for Rafale fighter jets, submarines and unmanned aerial vehicles.

Energy Sector: The push towards decarbonisation received a major impetus after centre proposed Rs 20,000 crore for carbon capture and utilisation scheme over the course of 5 years. The other key announcements included duties for nuclear power exemptions extended till 2035 Excise duty relief for CNG, and Customs duty exemption for battery storage systems, solar glass inputs and capital goods for critical mineral processing. As part of the union budget announcement, tax holiday till 2047 was announced for foreign cloud providers using Indian data centres.

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Financial Sector: Several key alterations have buoyed the finance sector such as the high-level committee on banking for Viksit Bharat to upcoming simplified income tax rules and forms. The other booster included raising capex to Rs 12.2 lakh crore, and city economic regions given Rs 5,000 crore per region over 5 years.

Manufacturing & Exports: The Union FM had announced the launch of India Semiconductor Mission (ISM) 2.0, with a Rs 40,000 crore outlay to bolster the nation's semiconductor vertical. Meanwhile, India's budget. for FY2026-27 also increased the outlay for the electronics components manufacturing scheme to Rs 40,000 crore.

On other hand, 4 Rare Earth Corridors & 3 cluster based Chemical Parks were proposed to counter dependence on other countries, while also introducing Rs 200 crore for construction & infrastructure equipment scheme.

The centre also plans to upscale its container manufacturing via a scheme that allocates Rs 10,000 crore over the next five years.  

Healthcare: The budget 2026 directed its focus on non-communicable diseases and geriatric care. Meanwhile, the Biopharma SHAKTI scheme of Rs 10k crore will bolster the country's biopharma sector. The centre also emphasised on building five medical hubs set up to promote Medical value tourism, and train Training of 1.5 lakh multi-skilled caregivers.