TOI Budget Dialogue 2026: From digital infrastructure to no tax changes – the pillars for Viksit Bharat

NEW DELHI: The Times of India Budget Dialogues 2026 in New Delhi on Tuesday, brought together policymakers, economists, industry leaders and opinion-makers to decode the priorities, promises and pressures of the Union Budget. The platform set the stage for a wide-ranging discussion on India’s economic roadmap at a time of global uncertainty and domestic aspirations. To examine what this budget means for infrastructure, manufacturing, jobs, agriculture, exports, and social development and what it means for India’s journey. The 2nd session of the dialogue focused on the theme ‘March Towards Viksit Bharat’ in a panel discussion moderated by Sunil Barthwal, former commerce secretary, GOI. The panel included managing director and CEO, Yotta Sunil Gupta, content entrepreneur Shavir Bansal, managing partner, Baker Tilly Ajay Sethi, director general-COAI Lt General (retd) Dr SP Kochhar.Initiating the conversation Sunil Barthwal pointed to a key facet about the budget’s “long term vision and approach to understand it in the larger context rather than just focusing on immediate tax provisions or budget provisions.”He said, the budget laid out a step towards the Viksit Bharat 2047 vision, and sets a goal as to where we will be in 2047. He also highlighted that “India is already the fastest growing major economy in the world and is poised to become the third largest economy very soon, but that is not the end point. The end point is to become a developed economy by 2047.” Barthwal further said, the Budget for the first time very clearly has charted out the policy framework for the long vision from tax concession to semi-conductors. Lt Gen Kochhar emphasized on the importance of digital infrastructure as a road leading to Viksit Bharat, and also expressed concerns over no attempt in the budget to make this digital infra more strong and resilient. He said, “if digital highways were to break down there would be complete mayhem,..the physical and digital infrastructure are both important but digital is the future and has been acknowledged by the government in their assertions and is reflected the physical digital part of the Budget…the component that make the digital ecosystem, that has been addressed. What has not been addressed is to make this digital infrastructure strong…despite MoC saying telecom networks are the value added horizontals which need to be strengthened."Managing partner of Baker Tilly Ajay Sethi, an accountant by profession appreciating no tax changes said, “every year when the budget is announced, there are some expectations of some taxes to be changed. Taxes can’t be changed endlessly, the blueprint of the growth is what is a critical factor for a good budget.”He went on to say, “2025 will mark a golden era for India, something like what China witnessed 15-20 years ago, is what I see 2025 heralding in, and I believe 2026 is going to be a fantastic year. But when the trade tariff and issues with the US, and now you can sit back and wonder what to do or play on front foot. And the government came out with FTA’s which were game-changers.”Shavir Bansal tried to demystify the air around creator economy, appreciating the government's acknowledgement of content creation as a legitimate job and terming it “orange economy.”Bansal himself a content creator, called the budget very personal. He highlighted that content creation as of now is adding around $20 billion to the economy and its bound to go up in the coming years to around $100 billion in the package of services being a very important pillar of supporting growth. Sunil Gupta explaining the reason behind Budgetary focus on data centres and related tax reliefs, said “the digital infrastructure of the country needs to keep pace with the digital adoption in our life and AI is only amplifying it further.” He further added that it comes from the thinking that everybody looks at India as a big consumer market but the data services are provided from outside the country.