V Anantha Nageswaran, Chief Economic Advisor, giving the keynote address at thehindu businessline’s Decoding the budget 2026-2027 in New Delhi. | Photo Credit: BIJOY GHOSH
Resilience and self-reliance were two words used a lot by the Chief Economic Advisor V Anantha Nageswaran, in his keynote address during a post-Budget event organised by businessline in New Delhi.
“Can I continue to survive if the world breaks down? If the answer to the question is no, then you have become strategically indispensable. But how do you do that? You bring in global value chains into India. But global value chains will want to have an ecosystem around it. A company that has to produce complex products will also need a domestic manufacturing ecosystem to supply them the components, etc. And that is where the importance of small and medium enterprises comes into picture,” said Nageswaran.
The CEA said that businesses in 2026 are seeing a situation akin to 2025 but with more fragility and volatility. “Therefore, the assumptions we have made with respect to India’s growth which the Economic Survey points out as 6.8 to 7.2 per cent for this coming financial year,”
He said the upgrade given to India’s potential growth from 6.5 per cent to 7 per cent for the medium term — which is about 5 to 10 years horizon — definitely are predicated on the global conditions over which we have very little control and that remains a risk factor for 2026–27.
Among the risks he mentioned was the one faced by Nayara Energy which faced suspension of its email client Microsoft. “Whether it is rare earths, permanent magnets, chemicals and fertilizers, active pharma ingredients or something which we take for granted as the availability of MS office or an email client — all these can be weaponised and have been weaponised as well. And that is why resilience becomes very important,” he stressed.
Saying that life always comes back full circle, he said, “So does policy making.” Whatever India was trying to do between 1947 and 1980 or so is back in fashion in the developed world and in the developing world as well. The only question is how do we do it differently? Because import substitution or indigenisation cannot be pursued in the manner we pursued it earlier because we also simultaneously need to be externally competitive, he pointed out.
Admitting that India had to find solutions to finance its current account deficit, he said the Budget does have some solutions for input cost reduction which is an important step in manufacturing competitiveness. “By lowering the basic customs duties whether it is on aircraft parts and manufacturing, whether it is on nuclear energy components or normal chemicals or electronic components, the Budget takes a very important step forward in bringing down input cost.”
“When we talk of global value chains and being able to supply to the world, it’s important, first of all, to boost manufacturing,” he noted.
Creating a domestic ecosystem is like running a marathon, he said. “At the same time, it is a marathon that we have to run as fast as possible, like we do in a sprint. Because the only continuity in the next 25 years is discontinuity.”
businessline Decoding of Budget 26-27 is presented by NABARD, In association with FICCI and associate Sponsors GIC Re, IDBI Bank and LIC.
Published on February 6, 2026
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