As Union Budget 2026 approaches, corporate India is signaling a fundamental shift in priorities. Rather than seeking broad fiscal stimulus or headline tax reductions, industry leaders across sectors are increasingly focused on execution efficiency—specifically addressing approval delays, regulatory overlaps, and policy mismatches that create hidden costs throughout the economy.

Housing Sector Takes Center Stage

The housing sector has emerged as one of the most significant themes in pre-budget discussions, reflecting its substantial multiplier effect on employment, consumption, and infrastructure development. Despite resilient residential demand, particularly in mid-income and premium segments, industry participants highlight persistent policy framework challenges.

Parveen Jain, President of NAREDCO, emphasizes that the absence of full industry and infrastructure status for real estate continues limiting access to long-term capital, even as the sector expands into rental housing and mixed-use developments. Akshay Taneja, CEO of TDI Infrastructure, and Ashish Narain Agarwal, Founder & Managing Director of PropertyPistol, note that affordability-linked incentives lose relevance when policy thresholds fail to reflect actual land, construction, and compliance costs in metropolitan areas.

Tier-2 and Tier-3 Cities Drive Growth

Unlike previous cycles dominated by metropolitan areas, the current housing upcycle is increasingly driven by Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities and peripheral urban corridors. Infrastructure investments in expressways, airports, metro rail, and industrial nodes are reshaping demand patterns across emerging centers including Noida, Gurugram's outer belts, Sonipat, and Hyderabad.

Rohit Kishore, CEO of Hero Realty, highlights how infrastructure projects such as the Noida International Airport and expressway connectivity are driving end-user demand, supported by corporate inflows, data centers, and manufacturing units. Abhay Mishra, President & CEO of Jindal Realty, similarly identifies Tier-II cities as the new growth engine for housing, contingent on sustained urban infrastructure spending.

Manufacturing and MSME Challenges

India's manufacturing sector continues facing significant cost-of-entry barriers, with MSMEs particularly affected by fragmented industrial land availability, duplicated infrastructure, and prolonged approval processes. Yogesh Bhatia, Managing Director & CEO of LML Realty, indicates that reducing factory setup costs by even 15.00–25.00 percent could significantly improve manufacturing viability and formal employment, especially in Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities.

Digital and AI Sector Requirements

As artificial intelligence and data-driven platforms transition from experimentation to core business infrastructure, industry expectations are shifting toward scale-ready policy frameworks. Akshay Chhabra, Chairman & Managing Director of 1Point1 Solutions, and Anand Bhadkamkar, Group CFO of LS Digital, emphasize the need for research and development incentives, data governance clarity, and domestic digital ecosystem support to enable AI-led productivity gains.

In the Global Capability Center space, Lalit Ahuja, Founder & CEO of ANSR, stresses that predictable tax and GST treatment—particularly for cross-border services, intellectual property creation, and R&D activities—remains essential to sustain India's competitiveness as a global capability hub.

Startup Ecosystem Seeks Stability

For startups and investors, the emphasis has shifted firmly toward procedural certainty rather than new scheme proliferation. Rathnakar Samavedam, Investment Director & Managing Partner of Hyderabad Angles Fund, argues that unresolved legacy angel tax disputes and delayed loss recognition continue weighing on investor confidence.

Early-stage founders highlight cash-flow stress from delayed GST input credit and TDS refunds, particularly affecting companies with extended research and development cycles. The startup community is prioritizing resolution of existing procedural bottlenecks over introduction of additional support mechanisms.

Emerging Sectors and Long-term Capacity Building

Beyond traditional sectors, long-term capacity building has gained prominence across education, climate markets, and emerging asset classes. In education, sustained investment in research infrastructure and doctoral funding aligned with NEP 2020 is viewed as critical for positioning India as a global knowledge hub.

Climate markets present unique opportunities, with industry leaders emphasizing the need for robust registries, measurement systems, and digital trust layers as core financial infrastructure to ensure transparency and global acceptance as India transitions to compliance-driven carbon markets.

The consistent message across sectors—from dairy and hospitality to retail technology and luxury housing—reflects a mature approach to policy expectations. Industry is not seeking aggressive fiscal expansion but rather updated policy assumptions, faster execution, and regulatory coherence that reduce hidden costs and unlock long-term capital deployment.

Industry leaders across healthcare, pharmaceuticals, senior care and clean energy sectors are making strong appeals for policy support in the upcoming Union Budget 2026-27. These stakeholders emphasize the need for sustained public investment, regulatory clarity and targeted incentives to address rising costs, demographic shifts, and global market uncertainties while strengthening India's domestic capabilities and competitiveness.

Healthcare Infrastructure and Cancer Care Priorities

Healthcare leaders are highlighting cancer care as a critical area requiring immediate attention due to its significant financial and emotional burden on Indian households. The sector is seeking comprehensive policy interventions to improve accessibility and affordability of cancer treatment across the country.

Uday Deshmukh, Chairman and Founder CEO of Onco-Life Cancer Centre, emphasized that increased spending on oncology infrastructure and reduced import duties on life-saving equipment are essential to ensure quality cancer care remains accessible and affordable nationwide. He stressed that strengthening cancer care must remain a national priority for the government.

Pharmaceutical Sector Demands R&D and Manufacturing Support

India's pharmaceutical industry is urging the government to prioritize research and development alongside domestic manufacturing capabilities to counter global trade uncertainties and geopolitical disruptions. The sector is seeking decisive policy measures to maintain India's competitive advantage in the global pharmaceutical market.

Nikkhil K. Masurkar, CEO of ENTOD Pharmaceuticals, stated that the Budget 2026-27 must adopt a forward-looking approach given intensifying US tariff uncertainties, supply-chain disruptions and geopolitical headwinds. He called for enhanced R&D incentives and sustained support for pharmaceutical MSMEs to meet global regulatory standards.

Shweta Rai, Managing Director India and Country Division Head South Asia at Bayer Pharmaceuticals, noted that previous Budget measures including duty exemptions on life-saving drugs had created positive momentum. She emphasized that sustained policy and funding support for pharmaceutical R&D, screening, diagnostics and healthcare infrastructure will be critical given the rising disease burden.

Senior Care Sector Highlights Infrastructure and Insurance Gaps

With India experiencing a significant demographic transition, senior care providers are advocating for targeted policy interventions to establish a formal and scalable care ecosystem. The sector is facing challenges related to affordability, infrastructure development, and regulatory framework.

Rajit Mehta, MD and CEO of Antara Senior Care, highlighted the need for expanding insurance coverage to include long-term care services and called for infrastructure status recognition for the sector. Ishaan Khanna, CEO of Antara Assisted Care Services, emphasized that while investor interest in senior-friendly healthcare is rising, affordability remains a key challenge requiring insurance coverage for assisted living and formal recognition of caregiving as a skilled service.

Clean Energy Sector Seeks Comprehensive Solar Support

The clean energy industry is looking to the upcoming Budget to address structural challenges across the solar value chain and strengthen India's renewable energy manufacturing capabilities. Solar manufacturers are seeking end-to-end policy support to ensure long-term sustainability and competitiveness.

Amod Anand, Co-Founder and Director of Loom Solar, outlined the need for incentives supporting upstream integration and rationalization of duties on raw materials. He also emphasized the importance of resolving the inverted GST duty structure and providing stronger policy support for commercial and industrial solar projects, storage solutions, and grid infrastructure development.

Industry Consensus on Balanced Policy Approach

Industry stakeholders across all sectors are united in their expectation for a balanced policy approach in Budget 2026-27. They emphasize the need for measures that support innovation and domestic capacity building while maintaining focus on affordability, accessibility, and long-term resilience. The proposed interventions aim to align near-term industry sustainability with India's broader economic and strategic objectives, ensuring that policy support translates into tangible benefits for end consumers and strengthens the country's position in global markets.