Deepak Aggarwal, Co-founder, Co-CEO, and CFO of Moneyboxx Finance Limited
_“The Union Budget 2026-27 sends a strong and positive signal for India’s growth trajectory, with the fiscal deficit projected at 4.3 per cent of GDP and a significant increase in capital expenditure to ₹12.2 lakh crore. This combination of fiscal discipline and higher public investment provides a robust foundation for sustainable economic expansion and private sector participation._
_The proposed ₹10,000 crore SME growth fund and the Rs 2,000 crore top-up for the Self-Reliant India Fund will be instrumental in supporting both micro and small enterprises, ensuring access to capital for those that remain credit-starved despite existing schemes. These measures, along with efforts to create champion MSMEs and scale up manufacturing in strategic sectors, reinforce India’s long-term industrial competitiveness.”
Akshat Saxena, Co-founder and CEO, Vibrium.AI
“Union Budget 2026–27 highlights how artificial intelligence will enable industries, agriculture, logistics, governance, and social development. Initiatives mentioned in the budget, like Bharat-VISTAAR, AI-led job matching, and technology-driven customs and welfare systems, reflect a desire from the government to build a resilient digital backbone for the economy. Budget’s emphasis on AI-driven productivity, security, and inclusion will go a long way in strengthening service delivery, enhancing competitiveness, and preparing India’s workforce for the future. As stakeholders in the agentic AI space, this momentum will encourage innovation, responsible deployment, and large-scale impact, enabling India to lead the next wave of intelligent, autonomous technologies.”
Aman Puri, Founder, Steadfast Nutrition
There are several positive steps to strengthen healthcare in the 2026-27 Budget, including the Biopharma Shakti strategy for building India as a global Biopharma manufacturing hub. This has been done to address the growing challenge of non-communicable diseases in the country, including diabetes, cancer, obesity, and autoimmune disorders, and is a welcome step, as biologic medicines can go a long way in improving longevity and the quality of life of patients at affordable costs.
At the same time, focusing only on disease treatment is not a solution. The emphasis on preventive healthcare — the key to tackling these non-communicable diseases — continues to remain low. The crucial National Health Mission, which focuses on non-communicable disease prevention and disease control programmes, has received only a 5.8% increase, from Rs 37,226.92 crore announced in the 2025-26 Budget to Rs 39,390.00 crore in 2026-27. To strengthen preventive healthcare, more funds are required for screening, diagnosing, counselling, awareness, and nutrition guidance programmes. Overall, allocation to healthcare remains stagnant, with government investment remaining under 2% of the GDP this year as well. India has fallen short of its target to increase the government healthcare expenditure to 2.5% of the GDP by 2025, as outlined in the National Health Policy 2017. The overall allocation of Rs 106,530 crore to healthcare (Ministry of Health and Family Welfare) is a modest increase of roughly 10% compared to the revised estimates of last year, which may not sufficiently address the demands of India’s burgeoning population, the demand-supply gap in the country, and enormous healthcare challenges, including poor medical infrastructure, particularly in villages and Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities.
The announcement to create a network of 1,000 accredited clinical trial sites across the country is positive as it will position India as a preferred global destination for clinical research. The focus on Ayush, decision to expand the allied healthcare workforce and train a large pool of multi-skilled healthcare professionals are good moves that will address gaps in service delivery.
Sandeep Rai, Founder, The Circle
“The new budget released focuses intensively on investments in higher education and the pathway from education to employment. That’s laudable. We have to keep building our institutes of higher education. And we have to keep doubling down on employment.
At the same time, we can’t lose focus on strengthening India’s K-10 public education system. We must continue strengthening our schools and building our foundations. Realizing our 2047 goals will only be possible with a strong foundation.”
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