ArdorComm Media Bureau
January 30, 2026
As Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman prepares to present the Union Budget 2026–27 on February 1, expectations are running high across education, industry, healthcare, technology, and women’s empowerment sectors. The Budget comes amid global geopolitical uncertainty, subdued domestic demand, and weak FDI and investment growth, yet India’s economic fundamentals remain robust, offering a foundation for progressive, long-term reforms. Stakeholders are urging a balance between fiscal prudence, infrastructure spending, and strategic investments in human capital, AI and deep technology, healthcare, and women’s empowerment, emphasizing that policy clarity and outcome-oriented measures will be key to sustaining India’s growth trajectory and global competitiveness.
Against this backdrop, leaders from education, industry, and healthcare have shared their priorities, highlighting the need for structural reforms, capacity building, and innovation-focused allocations. From strengthening school and higher education outcomes to fostering AI-driven entrepreneurship, preventive healthcare, and women’s economic empowerment, these voices collectively underscore the role of the Budget in shaping India’s future-ready workforce and resilient economy.
Kanak Gupta, Group Director, Seth M.R. Jaipuria Schools, says the Union Budget 2026 must mark a decisive reset in school education, particularly beyond India’s metros. He notes that as India prepares for Budget 2026, the conversation must move “beyond allocations and announcements to a harder question: are our schools building capability at the pace India’s future demands?” With over 250 million school-going children—nearly two-thirds in Tier 2, Tier 3 and semi-urban regions—Gupta emphasises that India’s next phase of growth “will not be decided in a few global cities, but in the quality of schooling available across districts and emerging towns.” He urges stronger execution, teacher capability, and outcome-linked funding aligned with NEP 2020 priorities, institutionalised continuous professional development, AI as core infrastructure, early skills integration, school–industry linkages, and systemic inclusion, noting “Inclusion is not welfare—it is an investment in human capital.” According to him, Budget 2026 is an opportunity to treat school education as “India’s most strategic economic investment,” not merely a social obligation.
Dr. Madhu Chitkara, Pro Chancellor of Chitkara University (Punjab & Himachal Pradesh) says “The Economic Survey 2025-26 reminds us that India’s education story is no longer about enrolment alone—it is about transformation. We stand at a juncture where access has expanded, but quality and relevance must take center stage. My expectation from the Union Budget 2026–27 is that it should boldly reimagine education as the nation’s most strategic economic investment. This means embedding digital learning across classrooms, empowering teachers with cutting-edge training, and bridging rural-urban divides with equitable infrastructure. More importantly, higher education must be aligned with the skills of tomorrow—artificial intelligence, renewable energy, biotechnology, and advanced manufacturing—so that our youth are not just degree holders but innovators and job creators. If the Budget can turn India’s demographic dividend into a knowledge dividend, it will secure not only inclusive growth but also global leadership. Education must be the engine that powers India’s next decade of prosperity.”
Ganesh Natarajan, Chairman, GTT Data Solutions & 5F World, says the Budget comes amid global uncertainty and weak domestic demand. While acknowledging these challenges, he notes that “the fundamentals of the Indian economy remain strong and provides a strong foundation for a progressive budget.” He expects “a careful balancing of infrastructure and fiscal deficit, rationalisation of taxes and investments in foundational AI and Deep Tech where India has been lagging in comparison to the US and China.”
Kunwar Shekhar Vijendra, Co-Founder & Chancellor of Shobhit University and Chairman, National Education Council, ASSOCHAM, stresses that “budgets do not transform education—institutions do.” While financial allocations matter, without academic capacity, regulatory trust, and institutional autonomy, they “remain accounting entries.” India’s challenge, he says, is strengthening universities as spaces of knowledge creation, ethical leadership, and national purpose. Education, according to Vijendra, must be treated as long-term nation-building infrastructure—“patiently funded, thoughtfully governed, and purposefully empowered.”
Abhishek Ballabh, Co-Founder & CEO, ExtraaEdge, says that as founders building AI products from India for a global market, there is “a clear uncertainty many of us are carrying—not about ambition or talent, but about whether India will be a producer of AI or remain a large consumer of it.” He sees the Budget as “an opportunity to remove that uncertainty,” calling for decisive support for AI infrastructure, including local compute, affordable GPUs, reliable inference capacity, and India-hosted data centers. He also emphasises local models and applied AI, noting that “vertical AI companies solving real problems in education, healthcare, BFSI, manufacturing, and public services need equal support.” Predictable policy and capital frameworks, he adds, will attract long-term foreign investment into Indian AI.
Dr. Aloke Mullick, Chief Growth Officer, OMNI Hospitals says “As an ex CEO of national hospital chains, my budget expectations are clear: protect affordable care while supporting capacity expansion. Private equity has poured significant capital into Indian healthcare — estimates show PE/VC flows of roughly $5–6 billion annually in recent years and a cumulative multi-billion-dollar push into hospitals (sector 2023–24 figures vary by source). To curb a creeping PE takeover of community healthcare, I urge the government to offer a matching public support package — soft loans or a sovereign equity vehicle sized to roughly match recent PE inflows (i.e., several billion dollars spread over 3–5 years). Such instruments should carry patient-care covenants, caps on profit extraction, and lock-in periods to preserve clinical autonomy and affordable pricing. Complementary measures: tax incentives for greenfield capacity in Tier-2/3 cities, faster MSME-style credit for smaller hospitals, and transparent PPP reimbursement timelines. These steps will balance capital needs with national health interests.”
Sameer Mehta, Chairman, Dr. Mehta’s Hospitals, Chennai, says the Union Budget 2026–27 should prioritise practical, system-level reforms that lower healthcare costs and improve patient experience. He calls for a sandbox approach in which the government subsidises private and trust hospitals to pilot new technologies that can significantly reduce operating costs, with proven models later scaled across government hospitals. He also emphasises the need to standardise insurance authorisation processes—before, during and after discharge—to ease consumer pain and reduce administrative delays. Additionally, Mehta advocates the creation of a centralised group purchasing portal for drugs, consumables and medical equipment, backed by QCI quality checks, which he believes could substantially bring down costs across hospitals while maintaining quality standards.
Rupak Barua, Managing Director & CEO, Woodlands Multispeciality Hospital, says Union Budget 2026–27 must place public health spending—by the Centre and States combined, currently around 1.8% of GDP—on a credible path toward the National Health Policy target of 2.5%. He stresses that higher allocations should translate into real capacity creation through PPP-led expansion of district-level diagnostics, oncology and critical care, alongside a robust telemedicine backbone integrated with the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission to reduce travel and repeat testing. With out-of-pocket expenditure still at nearly 39% of total health spending, Barua highlights the importance of fiscal levers, including building on GST rationalisation, widening customs relief for cancer therapies, and reducing duties on high-end imported medical equipment. He also calls for expanding insurance coverage beyond hospitalisation to OPD and diagnostics, and for greater investment in nursing and allied healthcare skilling.
Dr. Kerron G Reddy, Founder of AIMS Institutes, highlights the broader economic context, noting that India retains a strong GDP growth trajectory of 7.4%, making it the fastest-growing major economy. He expects the Budget to focus on accelerating growth via higher capital expenditure, infrastructure financing, fiscal incentives for private investment, customs duty rationalisation, and higher income tax exemptions, while supporting startups, green energy, AI, healthcare, education, housing, and digital transformation to boost domestic consumption amid geopolitical uncertainty.
Dr. D.K. Gupta, Chairman & MD, Felix Hospital & Healthcare, warns of a structural healthcare funding crisis, with public spending hovering at just 1.8–2.0% of GDP, far below the National Health Policy 2017 target of 2.5% and the 5% recommended by experts. He urges Budget 2026–27 to address infrastructure, workforce gaps, affordability, preventive healthcare, and rationalisation of GST and customs duties on medical devices. Gupta emphasises stronger support for AI-driven health platforms, digital diagnostics, personalised wellness solutions, startups, diagnostics expansion in Tier-2/3/rural areas, and outcome-oriented preventive care funding. He stresses that “a budget that aligns fiscal support with regulatory clarity, ethical AI, and patient-centric design can help India move decisively from a treatment-centric system to one anchored in prevention, trust, and long-term resilience,” adding that healthcare is “a strategic investment in India’s future productivity and well-being.”
Surgeon Commander Sujit Chatterjee, MD, Chief Executive, Adi Arogyam Suman Ramesh Tulsiani Hospital, says India’s healthcare sector is well positioned to emerge as a global leader, but this will require strong government support beyond the efforts of doctors alone. He expects Union Budget 2026–27 to increase healthcare allocations to at least 2–3% of GDP, lower diagnostic costs, and create a more efficient reimbursement mechanism for hospitals. Emphasising equitable access, he calls for a sustained thrust on strengthening healthcare infrastructure in Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities. Chatterjee also urges incentives for medical colleges to expand seat capacity to train more doctors, and reforms in health insurance, including a revision of Mediclaim premiums—higher contributions from younger, earning individuals and significantly lower premiums, with extended ‘no-claim’ benefits for senior citizens.
Prof. (Dr.) Sanku Bose, Vice Chancellor, Sister Nivedita University (SNU) and Group CEO, Techno India Group (SRC), proposes allowing Indian corporates 100% tax-free contributions to a national fund for university-led R&D and market-driven course development, applicable to both private and state universities. This fund, he says, should support live industry projects, applied research, new-age curriculum design, and student innovation labs to create employability-ready graduates, moving “beyond transactional CSR to strategic nation-building.” Safeguards, independent oversight, and outcome-based audits are key, ensuring that incentives translate into “talent pipelines, innovation engines, and future-ready graduates.”
Prof. Ajanta Borgohain Rajkonwar, Vice-Chancellor, Assam Women’s University, Jorhat, highlights the Mukhyamantri Mahila Udyamita Abhiyan (MMUA) as a “shining example of women’s economic empowerment in Assam.” Launched under the leadership of Chief Minister Dr. Himanta Biswa Sarma, the scheme transforms rural women—many homemakers and SHG members—into micro-entrepreneurs, helping them achieve financial independence and an annual income of at least ₹1 lakh, earning them the title “Lakhpati Baideu.” She notes that the Union Budget 2026–27 could further support homemakers by easing the financial and practical burdens of household responsibilities, including options such as direct monetary compensation or a “salary” for unpaid domestic work. According to Prof. Borgohain Rajkonwar, initiatives like MMUA can serve as models for adoption in other states, promoting women’s empowerment nationwide.
As Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman prepares to unveil the Union Budget 2026–27, the insights from education, industry, healthcare, AI, and women’s empowerment leaders underscore the high expectations from stakeholders across sectors. Beyond numbers and allocations, there is a shared call for outcome-oriented reforms, strategic investments, and policies that build long-term capacity, promote innovation, and ensure inclusive growth. From strengthening schools and universities, fostering AI and deep-tech ecosystems, expanding healthcare infrastructure, to empowering women entrepreneurs, the leaders’ perspectives highlight that Budget 2026–27 has the potential to be more than a fiscal exercise—it can serve as a blueprint for India’s future-ready, resilient, and globally competitive economy.