Budget 2026 signals maturing of India’s tech economy, says Sindhu Gangadharan

INDIA ENTERS BUDGET 2026 from a position of established strength in the global technology economy. Over the past decade, tech has anchored exports, enabled large-scale enterprise transformation, and placed India at the centre of global delivery, engineering, and innovation networks. The question this Budget implicitly addresses is how India converts that scale and capability into sustained global leadership, not just volume. Budget 2026 responds to this with a clear execution bias. It strengthens the policy backbone required for India to operate as a global tech and AI execution hub. Across cloud infrastructure, AI, skilling, and regulatory simplification, the Budget signals that the next phase of growth will be defined by how deeply technology is embedded into the economy’s core operating systems. This focus matters as India expands its role as a trusted base for running complex, regulated, and mission-critical global operations. Infrastructure: Building for scale The Budget builds on India’s digital foundations by reinforcing long-term confidence in cloud and digital infrastructure. Policy certainty for cloud services, combined with continued investment in connectivity and secure digital public platforms, strengthens its position as a location from which global platforms and data-intensive workloads can be run at scale. This is a meaningful shift from adoption to ownership, enabling firms to modernise core systems, deploy AI responsibly, and operate global environments with greater assurance from India. From an enterprise perspective, this marks a shift from adoption to ownership. Stability over long-time horizons allows organisations to modernise core systems, architect global platforms, and deploy AI responsibly from India, rather than treating the country as a downstream execution layer. Regulatory clarity and predictability reinforce this shift. The consolidation of IT services under a simplified tax and compliance framework reflects the maturity of India’s tech ecosystem. Measures such as the expansion of the safe harbour threshold from ₹300 crore to ₹2,000 crore, the introduction of a single 15.5% margin across IT categories, and faster timelines for Advance Pricing Agreements materially reduce uncertainty for global tech firms. These changes are a welcome step towards turning international tax from a friction point into a source of operating confidence. For enterprises with long investment cycles, predictable tax outcomes influence where IP is created, where platform ownership sits, and where accountability for global systems resides. Budget 2026 strengthens India’s positioning as a destination for long-term tech decisions. India’s expanding role One of the clearest indicators of India’s evolving role in the global technology economy is the transformation of global capability centres (GCCs). Budget 2026 strengthens the conditions that allow GCCs to move decisively up the value chain. Sustained focus on infrastructure readiness, cloud enablement, talent depth, and compliance simplicity makes India an increasingly compelling base for advanced engineering, AI development, and platform ownership. Today, GCCs in India design core systems, manage global platforms, and take responsibility for mission-critical operations. This shift reflects growing confidence in India’s engineering depth and institutional maturity. The Budget’s alignment reinforces India’s positioning as a strategic tech partner, rather than a cost-driven location. AI becomes business-as-usual AI is now embedded across enterprise decision-making, spanning supply chains, finance, human resources, and customer engagement. Budget 2026 recognises this transition by treating AI as foundational infra rather than a standalone initiative. Investments in digital systems, data-led governance, cybersecurity, and cloud readiness create the conditions for AI to move from pilots into enterprise-scale deployment. Equally important is the emphasis on trust. As AI becomes central to core business processes, confidence in systems, data integrity, and governance frameworks becomes a competitive advantage. By reinforcing responsible adoption alongside scale, the Budget supports an environment where innovation progresses with accountability. This strengthens India’s credibility as a reliable location for advanced, enterprise-grade AI deployment. Growth drivers for the next stage Budget 2026 places renewed emphasis on innovation and skills as long-term growth drivers. Technology-led innovation depends not only on research funding, but on strong linkages between industry, academia, and applied learning. Continued support for research, innovation missions, and industry-aligned institutions helps ensure India’s innovation ecosystem remains globally relevant. Talent remains the decisive differentiator. Demand for skills in AI, data engineering, cloud platforms, cybersecurity, and systems architecture continues to accelerate. The Budget’s focus on education-to-employment pathways, services-led skilling, and targeted initiatives for women in STEM reflects an understanding that competitiveness will be shaped by talent depth as much as by infra. Continuous skilling and reskilling are positioned as essential to keeping pace with technological change and ensuring growth remains inclusive and resilient. Budget 2026 sends a clear outward-looking signal. Technology is positioned as the bridge between domestic capability and global opportunity. By aligning cloud infrastructure, AI adoption, skills development, and regulatory clarity, the Budget strengthens India’s ability to participate meaningfully in global technology value chains. The coming years will test how effectively economies translate ambition into execution. With Budget 2026 reinforcing technology as a foundational enabler rather than a sectoral play, India is better placed to convert scale into leadership and play a defining role in shaping the next phase of global, AI-led growth. (The author is MD, SAP Labs India; chairperson, Nasscom; and president, Indo-German Chamber of Commerce. Views are personal.)

Budget 2026 signals maturing of India’s tech economy, says Sindhu Gangadharan

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