Budget: Sitharaman Gave Numbers When India Wanted a Story
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presents Budget 2026 (Image Sansad TV)
Markets sank, youth anxieties lingered, and growth questions went unanswered as Budget 2026 chose arithmetic over imagination.
By MANISH ANAND
New Delhi, February 1, 2026 — Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s ninth Budget speech may go as the worst in gaining attention. She herself seemed disinterested. Her feat seemed in finishing off her speech in 90-minute, as if that was what India wanted from her.
The market gave a quick and unbiased verdict. Investors were left poorer. The markets crashed as Sitharaman unveiled knee-jerk steps to jack up taxes on options trading and promotors’ buyback of stocks. Sitharaman in her Budget speeches has shown a knack of whipping stock markets for doubtful gains.
The ninth Budget, read out by Sitharaman, came at a crucial time. US tariffs on India still stay at 50 percent despite Trump’s rhetoric of “my good friend, Prime Minister Modi.” In the last few months, India has entered into free trade pacts with developed nations and groups.
The Budget 2026 should have spelt out the roadmap for an accelerated growth for India. In place, Sitharaman delivered a status quo. Her Budget 2026 proposals are more of fill in the gaps nature. Something here, something there.
The Economic Survey rather gained more interests than Sitharaman’s Budget speech. Rupee is sliding despite a crashing dollar. China gallops in trade surplus with India, year after year.
The youth of India, many educated even at graduation levels, resort to driving e-rickshaws in astounding numbers. But the official statistics claims that unemployment rate is also crashing.
Repetition is a hallmark of the Modi government, and also of Budgets. Bullet trains, high speed rail corridors, semiconductor, critical mineral, et al, have been mentioned in many of Sitharaman’s Budgets. Problem lies in the reality that they have extended life in spoken words. The first bullet train project, between Ahmedabad to Mumbai, has missed deadline several times.
Tapping waterways has been heard several times. Thematic clusters have found ways into the Budget speech as a late China inspiration.
Data suggests that the government is not spending what has been promised. The lack of ability to spend what has already been approved by parliament is a top worry now. Accompanying worry is the government’s eagerness to weave vote buying schemes. Thus, new schemes have again come into the Budget proposals. With no white papers on efficacy of such schemes, their fresh avatars just promise a short-term titillation.
The Budget 2026 failed to tell a story to India. In place, Sitharaman belted out numbers, which neither touched chords with Bharat nor India.
(This is an opinion piece. Views expressed are author’s own.)
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