Budget 2026 Signals: PM Modi at NITI Aayog as Tariffs Test Growth

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Ahead of Budget 2026, PM Modi meets top economists to push consumption-led growth, jobs, and private investment amid 50% US tariff pressure

By S JHA

New Delhi, December 30, 2025 — Prime Minister Narendra along with Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman met experts from the area of economy at the Niti Aayog to hear ideas for Budget 2026. The meeting came close on the heels of the Prime Minister hosting a meeting of state chief secretaries.

The Prime Minister was accompanied by top PMP officials—PK Mishra and Shaktikant Das. The Niti Aayog Members and officials also attended the meeting. The Prime Minister has been holding such meetings on a regular basis ahead of the unveiling of the Union Budget.

In the past, the ideas gathered from such meetings found space in the Budgets. As a pattern, the experts have been telling the Prime Minister to give a boost to consumption to strengthen the economy. Incidentally, the consumption component in the national GDP of India is staggering 70 percent.

The meeting also took place amid growing stress test for India as the US tariffs on India at 50 percent remain key concerns for the policy makers. Besides, measures such as higher H1B fee for Indian students and professionals are also concerning the policy makers.

Officials in the Niti Aayog said that experts laid emphasis on measures to boost employment, spur private investment, expansion of public investment through mega infrastructure projects, and diversify India’s export baskets by gaining price competitiveness.

Experts globally are keenly awaiting the unveiling of the Union Budget 2026 for cues on directions of the Indian economy. They are betting on Modi embracing tangible and visible reforms to unlock private investments.

Economists have regularly been warning that the high GDP growth numbers in the company of excessively low inflation pose challenge for the Modi government to script the path of an employment generation economy.