Mr. Manoj Tulsian, CEO & Joint Managing Director, Greenply Industries Ltd-
"The upcoming Union Budget is expected to strengthen India's industrial ecosystem, given the increasing unpredictability of global commerce and the way tariffs are changing supply chains.
For the wood panel and furniture industry, the Union Budget must continue incentives for affordable housing, increased tax exemptions on home loan interest payments, and policies that enhance liquidity for real estate developers. In addition, we look forward to a strong push for 'Make in India' furniture and interior products, that promote domestic sourcing and value addition. This will help drive capacity additions and make Indian wood panel manufacturers more sustainable and less dependent on imports."
Sameer Kanodia, Managing Director and CEO of Lumina Datamatics Limited
"As India prepares for the Union Budget, we expect a sharper policy focus on strengthening digital and AI-led infrastructure that underpins knowledge services, publishing, and the fast-growing retail and e-commerce ecosystem. Continued investments in advanced technologies such as AI, automation, and cloud platforms will be critical to improving productivity across content creation, digital publishing workflows, and large-scale retail operations.
For the publishing sector, targeted support for technology-enabled content production, research digitisation, and global content services exports can help Indian companies deepen their role in the international knowledge economy. Similarly, policy measures that encourage data-driven retail operations, catalogue automation, and digital supply chains will be vital as e-commerce scales in complexity and volume.
Aligned with our expectations, a strong emphasis on AI-focused skill development, R&D incentives, and ease of doing business for technology-driven service providers that can enable companies to continue building globally competitive solutions from India, while creating high-value employment and accelerating innovation across publishing and commerce."
“Ahead of the Union Budget, we expect focused tax reforms that remove long-standing operational frictions for NBFCs. Allowing loss carry-forward in genuine internal restructurings and rationalising ESOP taxation by deferring tax to the point of sale will help companies scale responsibly while retaining critical talent. Extending parity to NBFCs under Section 194A by exempting them from TDS on interest would further reduce compliance burden for MSMEs, ease working capital pressures, and enable smoother co-lending and credit flow.”- Mr. Akshay Sarma, CFO at axio.
As the Union Budget 2026–27 approaches, India's electronics manufacturing sector is entering a phase where the emphasis is shifting from capacity creation to capability building. The scale achieved through PLI-led manufacturing has strengthened India's presence in global supply chains, but the next phase of growth will depend on deeper design, engineering, and high-reliability manufacturing capabilities.
Industry demand is increasingly coming from future-facing applications where electronics must be designed for reliability, safety, and long-term performance, rather than volume alone. Continued policy stability, along with calibrated support for critical sub-components, precision tooling, and advanced manufacturing, will be essential to reduce structural import dependence and enhance competitiveness.
Over the medium term, sustained investments in skilling, R&D enablement, and access to long-term capital—particularly for MSMEs—will be key to helping Indian manufacturers move up the value chain and integrate more deeply into next-generation global electronics ecosystems. Together, these factors support supply-chain resilience and India's evolution towards a more integrated electronics manufacturing and design ecosystem."
— Mukesh Vasani, Chairman & Managing Director, Aimtron Electronics.
India today is the most populous country, with a median age of 28 to 29 years, and roughly 25% of the population is under 15 years. But even after that, we have underutilised talent and have not been able to produce Olympic-level champions. We believe that the sports-tech startup ecosystem needs focused government support to reach its full potential. India's sports achievements are getting better all the time, but the infrastructure and policies that support grassroots sports development need to be fixed right away.
We need to make three important changes: First, Startup India should set up special funding sources for sports technology and grassroots development platforms. Second, tax breaks for businesses that put money into sports infrastructure and training technology, like the ones that come with R&D. Third, easier rules for sports startups, especially when it comes to doing business in more than one state and setting up payment systems.
India has the talent and market to become a world leader in sports. We need policy support that sees sports tech as an important area for youth development and economic growth. The government's goal of making the country a sports powerhouse can only happen if startups that are pushing the envelope in this area get the support they need in terms of structure and money.
Abhinav Sinha, co-founder of SportsSkill..
Andre Eckholt(Managing Director – Hettich India, SAARC, Middle East & Africa)
"As Make in India enters a decisive phase, the Union Budget 2026 presents an important opportunity to further strengthen India's manufacturing sectors. To take this momentum to the next level, the Budget should expand and refine the PLI framework across key industries and extend incentive timelines to provide greater certainty for long-gestation manufacturing investments. A supportive and predictable policy environment can accelerate local manufacturing and reinforce India's position as a reliable production hub for both domestic and export markets. Sustained policy support under the Make in India initiative will enable domestic manufacturers to scale up, innovate, and compete globally".
Managing Director and CEO of Laxmi Dental Limited :
"The upcoming Union Budget presents a strong opportunity to accelerate India's healthcare transformation. We hope to see increased incentives for digital health adoption, AI-driven diagnostics, and advanced medical manufacturing, which can significantly improve accessibility and affordability of quality care. In the dental sector specifically, greater support for AI and digital technologies such as CAD/CAM, 3D printing, and smart diagnostic tools can revolutionize patient outcomes by enabling faster, more precise, and predictable treatments. Encouraging innovation in digital dentistry will strengthen preventive care, enhance clinical efficiency, and make advanced dental solutions more widely available. Supportive policies around these emerging technologies and easier regulatory pathways will help position India as a global leader in tech-enabled healthcare and dental excellence."
- HungerBox: Mr. Sandipan Mitra, Co-Founder & CEO, HungerBox, commented, "For the upcoming Union Budget 2026, B2B foodtech platforms expect policy clarifications that address structural tax duplication under both Income Tax and GST, while preserving compliance and revenue integrity. Both under Income Tax and GST, B2B foodtech platforms face tax duplication because facilitation platforms are taxed as trading models. Budget-level clarifications can eliminate double taxation while preserving compliance and revenue integrity. B2B foodtech platforms operate on an agency model, but current TDS provisions result in tax being deducted twice on the gross transaction value, once by corporates and again by the platform. A Budget clarification for e-commerce transactions to allow a single, platform-level TDS deduction and exemption to the end customers would prevent double TDS deduction for one transaction and unlock working capital without any revenue loss to the Govt."
In institutional food services, platforms act as facilitators, not traders, yet current GST rules on MRP items force them to appear as buyers and sellers. Allowing platforms to discharge GST on behalf of vendors, similar to rules for non-MRP supplies, would align taxation with commercial substance, improve compliance certainty, and better avoid tax evasions by the merchants, and also ease compliance for customers." - Invincible Ocean: "India's AI and deeptech budget allocation must now move from intent to impact. A critical portion of this capital should be invested in building a robust evaluation and governance layer, one that clearly distinguishes companies doing genuine AI research and model development from those offering traditional software while positioning themselves as AI-led. This will ensure that public funds are channelled to innovators who are truly advancing India's AI capabilities. Additionally, for startups working at the core of AI and deeptech, Budget 2026 should introduce targeted tax rebates for R&D upgrades and structured compute-credit programs to support data processing and model training. These measures will directly lower innovation costs and help Indian startups build globally competitive AI products from India," said Mr. Ajay Setia, Founder & CEO, Invincible Ocean.
By Mr. Anand S. Kabra, Chairman and Managing Director, Kabra Extrusiontechnik Limited & GEON
"The upcoming Budget comes at a critical moment for India's energy landscape. With the green transition gaining momentum, the industry expects policy measures that not only accelerate adoption but also strengthen the domestic ecosystem for clean energy technologies.
Support for energy storage, electric mobility, and advanced electronics will be essential to ensure that India is not just a consumer of future technologies but a global contributor to them. Equally important is a policy framework that encourages innovation, improves ease of doing business, and enables sustainable manufacturing at scale.
If aligned well, the Budget can act as a catalyst for long-term growth, positioning India as a leader in sustainable and technology-driven industries."
