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Technology firms are expecting the Union Budget 2026-27 to push for development of the AI ecosystem, including innovation, digital infrastructure, across sectors, and provide liquidity in the market for its adoption.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present the Budget on Sunday in Parliament.
The Economic Survey tabled in Parliament on January 29 has recognised Artificial Intelligence (AI) as an economic strategy rather than a prestige technology race. It made a strong case for a bottom-up, multiple sector-specific approach grounded in open and interoperable systems to promote collaboration and shared innovation.
Former Tech Mahindra CEO and Co-Founder and Vice Chairman of AI firm AIONOS, CP Gurnani said the Survey brilliantly captures India's AI momentum with India's world-class talent, diverse data assets and smart pivot to bottom-up innovation with smaller, domain-specific models that fit India's reality perfectly.
"India's way forward is exciting, which is to leverage our engineering strength to create affordable, human-centric AI that solves local challenges first, then scales globally. This positions us not just as participants, but as leaders in the next wave of meaningful innovation," Gurnani said.
Logistics sector-focussed software-as-a-service firm FarEye said the industry expects the Budget to focus on measures to improve reliability and global competitiveness and prioritise autonomous logistics orchestration as it is a key component of goods across the country and impacts every household.
"Incentives for applied AI, advanced planning systems, and interoperable digital workflows will be essential to unlocking productivity gains across multimodal networks," FarEye Chief Business Officer, Suryansh Jalan said.
He said that while logistics is projected to add nearly 10 million jobs by 2027, the emphasis must shift toward job productivity and technology readiness.
"Targeted skilling for roles such as digital operations, control-tower management, and AI-assisted planning will be key to sustaining long-term competitiveness. The latest DPIIT-NCAER report recalibrating logistics costs to 7.97 per cent of GDP reflects the cumulative impact of sustained policy focus, infrastructure investment, and digital enablement across the sector," Jalan said.
Hitachi Group IT firm GlobalLogic sees the Union Budget as a pivotal moment to move from digital-first to intelligence-first infrastructure.
"The progress made in AI, data platforms, and digital public infrastructure has laid a strong foundation; the next opportunity lies in scaling this intelligence into the physical world," GlobalLogic , Vice President and head for Asia Pacific, Piyush Jha said.
Lumina Datamatics managing director, Sameer Kanodia said that he expects the Union Budget to 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," Kanodia said.
Semiconductor firms, a key segment for building AI infrastructure, want that the budget should now focus on continuity, execution certainty and long-term competitiveness, especially as several large semiconductor and electronics projects move into implementation stages.
Chip makers industry body IESA President, Ashok Chandak said the India Semiconductor Mission (ISM)-led Semicon India Program, Designed Linked Incentive (DLI), Production Linked Incentive scheme and Electronics Component Manufacturing Scheme have delivered tangible progress, with faster approvals, large committed investments and visible movement from announcements to on-ground execution.
"Key expectations include continuity and strengthening of ISM 2.0 , higher budgetary allocations for approved projects in FY27, and a simplified, time-bound pari-passu disbursement mechanism. Semiconductors and electronics are capital-intensive, long-gestation sectors. Tax certainty and execution predictability are as important as incentives," Chandak said.
Telecom gear maker HFCL expects measures to convert telecom infrastructure advantage in the country into enduring technological leadership.
"The forthcoming Budget can catalyze this transition by introducing a targeted Innovation-Linked Incentive (ILI) mechanism. This program needs to be precisely engineered to reward R&D expenditure and patent generation in 6G, Artificial Intelligence, and Defence Technologies, the core triad of future strategic power," HFCL managing director, Mahendra Nahata said. PTI
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present the Budget on Sunday in Parliament.
The Economic Survey tabled in Parliament on January 29 has recognised Artificial Intelligence (AI) as an economic strategy rather than a prestige technology race. It made a strong case for a bottom-up, multiple sector-specific approach grounded in open and interoperable systems to promote collaboration and shared innovation.
Former Tech Mahindra CEO and Co-Founder and Vice Chairman of AI firm AIONOS, CP Gurnani said the Survey brilliantly captures India's AI momentum with India's world-class talent, diverse data assets and smart pivot to bottom-up innovation with smaller, domain-specific models that fit India's reality perfectly.
"India's way forward is exciting, which is to leverage our engineering strength to create affordable, human-centric AI that solves local challenges first, then scales globally. This positions us not just as participants, but as leaders in the next wave of meaningful innovation," Gurnani said.
Logistics sector-focussed software-as-a-service firm FarEye said the industry expects the Budget to focus on measures to improve reliability and global competitiveness and prioritise autonomous logistics orchestration as it is a key component of goods across the country and impacts every household.
"Incentives for applied AI, advanced planning systems, and interoperable digital workflows will be essential to unlocking productivity gains across multimodal networks," FarEye Chief Business Officer, Suryansh Jalan said.
He said that while logistics is projected to add nearly 10 million jobs by 2027, the emphasis must shift toward job productivity and technology readiness.
"Targeted skilling for roles such as digital operations, control-tower management, and AI-assisted planning will be key to sustaining long-term competitiveness. The latest DPIIT-NCAER report recalibrating logistics costs to 7.97 per cent of GDP reflects the cumulative impact of sustained policy focus, infrastructure investment, and digital enablement across the sector," Jalan said.
Hitachi Group IT firm GlobalLogic sees the Union Budget as a pivotal moment to move from digital-first to intelligence-first infrastructure.
"The progress made in AI, data platforms, and digital public infrastructure has laid a strong foundation; the next opportunity lies in scaling this intelligence into the physical world," GlobalLogic , Vice President and head for Asia Pacific, Piyush Jha said.
Lumina Datamatics managing director, Sameer Kanodia said that he expects the Union Budget to 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," Kanodia said.
Semiconductor firms, a key segment for building AI infrastructure, want that the budget should now focus on continuity, execution certainty and long-term competitiveness, especially as several large semiconductor and electronics projects move into implementation stages.
Chip makers industry body IESA President, Ashok Chandak said the India Semiconductor Mission (ISM)-led Semicon India Program, Designed Linked Incentive (DLI), Production Linked Incentive scheme and Electronics Component Manufacturing Scheme have delivered tangible progress, with faster approvals, large committed investments and visible movement from announcements to on-ground execution.
"Key expectations include continuity and strengthening of ISM 2.0 , higher budgetary allocations for approved projects in FY27, and a simplified, time-bound pari-passu disbursement mechanism. Semiconductors and electronics are capital-intensive, long-gestation sectors. Tax certainty and execution predictability are as important as incentives," Chandak said.
Telecom gear maker HFCL expects measures to convert telecom infrastructure advantage in the country into enduring technological leadership.
"The forthcoming Budget can catalyze this transition by introducing a targeted Innovation-Linked Incentive (ILI) mechanism. This program needs to be precisely engineered to reward R&D expenditure and patent generation in 6G, Artificial Intelligence, and Defence Technologies, the core triad of future strategic power," HFCL managing director, Mahendra Nahata said. PTI
