D Shivakumar Former Chairman PepsiCo India & Former CEO, Emerging Markets, Nokia India

The Indian Budget, I argued a few years ago, is not a relevant annual event in a fast changing world. This year’s Budget is like the curate’s egg – good in parts.

The good news is fiscal discipline is under target. To come down from 6.6 per cent in 2022 to 4.3 per cent this year is very good. Fiscal prudence is a good habit in a volatile world. This itself should help investors see India differently. One has to appreciate the government efforts taken to get here.

The tax holiday for cloud services, data centres till 2047 is good. The total expenditure globally in data centres is close to $400 billion globally so far and if India can get 20 per cent of that in the next few years, then that is good news for many young graduates and Indian companies. Twenty-two years is a real long term bet in a world where technology changes quickly.

Semiconductor 2.0 outlay of ₹40,000 crore is good and bad. It’s a good step but is the money enough? This is about a $4 billion outlay. A semiconductor fab pant needs an investment of $10 to $30 billion; the ecosystem investment is much larger and hence the outlay has to be more. This is about future capabilities. The rare earth policy and corridors is good and future focused. In a sense, both are catch-up initiatives. As nationalism moves up across the world, defence spends are going up; this Budget targets a growth of 22 per cent!

The labeling as a Yuva Budget and the initiatives do not match fully. Young people want well paying secure jobs. Jobs have been discussed but not delivered in full. The emphasis on many skilling initiatives across health, tourism is good but we need firm plans for jobs. Past schemes like PLI and internship programmes have not been runaway successes. What have we learnt and what will change now?

The setting up of a banking committee is a welcome move. BFSI is about a $30 trillion industry and accounts for more than 25 per cent of the global GDP. India has done some excellent work in BFSI thanks to the RBI. The BFSI ecosystem is a big opportunity and a forward looking committee should reshape how India saves, spends, borrows and invests.

Our cities are stressed and falling apart at the seams so it is crucial to develop alternative opportunities in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities. This has been discussed for the last 50 years. The development of the next set of cities needs great collaboration between the state, the Centre and municipal corporations. The municipal corporations fund is a right step.

For the rest it was a lot of covering legacy to new industries, from ayurveda to coconut and cashew nuts, from fishing to women’s hostels, from One district One product to sea planes, from MSME support to the bond market.

A Budget good in parts.

The writer is the Former Chairman PepsiCo India & Former CEO, Emerging Markets, Nokia India

Published on February 1, 2026