Budget 2026-27 LIVE: Operation Sindoor: Major hike in defence spending

Terming the Union Budget presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Sunday as “disappointing”, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said it “lacks foresight”.

The CM also claimed that a “big injustice” had happened to Karnataka. “Karnataka has not been given anything. Not only that, the entire South India hasn’t been given anything in the Budget. Karnataka has been given ‘chombu’ (an empty small, round water container) in the Budget.”

“Only two things have been majorly mentioned about Karnataka: The Bengaluru-Chennai and Hyderabad-Bengaluru high speed rail corridors in five years. This is of no benefit to Karnataka. It is more beneficial to Telangana and Tamil Nadu. We had asked for Bengaluru-Mumbai, Bengaluru-Mangaluru, and Bengaluru-Pune high speed rails,” he added.

Siddaramaiah also pointed out that there is no mention about the state’s irrigation projects. “We had asked for the Upper Bhadra and Upper Krishna projects to be declared as national projects.”

The CM also hit out at the Centre for delays in clearances to river water projects like Mekedatu and Mahadayi. Citing lesser allocations to the state in central grants, Siddaramaiah said, “A big injustice is happening to us.”

In the Union Budget 2026-27, the government has proposed to set up seven city economic regions (CERs) with a proposed allocation of Rs 5,000 crore per region over five years, to strengthen urban growth.

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in her Budget speech on Sunday that the new initiative would focus on Tier II and Tier III cities, as well as temple towns, which require modern infrastructure and improved basic amenities.

According to the budgetary document, the allocation has been proposed for seven city economic regions—Bengaluru, Bhubaneshwar-Puri-Cuttack tri-cities, Coimbatore-Erode-Tiruppur, Pune, Surat, Varanasi and Vishakhapatanam.

The amount will be used for implementing their plans in a Public-Private-Partnership mode with a reform-cum-results-based financing mechanism.

The minister said the Budget aims to further amplify the potential of cities to deliver the economic power of agglomerations by mapping CER, based on their specific growth drivers.

The government will continue to focus on developing infrastructure in cities with over 5 lakh population (Tier II and Tier III), which have expanded to become growth centres.

The budget disappoints. For the stock market collapse in the wake of the budget presentation, the increase in securities transaction tax rates is seen as the trigger. However, the real let-down is the failure to respond to what Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney called a rupture in the global order, economic and political, and the challenges that flow from that rupture.

Strategic autonomy has been key to India’s development strategy. Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan, for example, were happy to accept American diktat and the American nuclear umbrella and liberal access to the American market that came with it, after the end of World War II. India wanted to shape its own destiny. And forged the policy of non-alignment, to wrest concessions from either side waging the Cold War.

Read the full Opinion by senior journalist TK Arun here

In a statement, it said, amid the sharply increasing inequality and unemployment, wage stagnation and dwindling people’s purchasing power and crumbling manufacturing sector along with global economic and political uncertainty, the Budget 2026-27 presented by the Modi government is the worst on the benchmark of anti-people budgets presented by this regime in previous years. The budget throws around the empty rhetoric of ‘Viksit Bharat’, while the Indian economy and the lives and livelihood of the people crumbles under its feet.

The Budget 2026-27 underlines the continuing neglect of agriculture and farmers, workers, youth and Women. The majority of the population are forced to live in a highly stressed economic environment with rising inequality marred with low incomes, high unemployment and escalating costs of living a decent life. This was the least to expect some announcements to boost prolonged stagnant incomes. But this budget fails miserably on this count.

Allocations for key social security and poverty alleviation schemes have either been reduced in real terms or left stagnant, failing to keep pace with inflation and rising population needs. The revised estimates (RE) of actual expenditure for FY 2025-26 also shows the trend with RE being less than last year's budget allocation in key sectors of Agriculture and Allied industries, Education, Health, Social Welfare and Rural and Urban development.

Principal chief adviser to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and state finance department Amit Mitra on Sunday (February 1) described the Union Budget as "anti-poor, anti-farmer and anti-middle class" and criticised the sharp reductions in social sector allocations compared with 2015-16.

Addressing a press conference, Mitra said key sectors impacting farmers, youth and weaker sections have seen steady cuts over the years, while headline allocations failed to translate into actual spending.

Citing education, he said expenditure ideally should have been 5-6 per cent of total expenditure but in reality it has declined from 3.8 per cent in 2015-16 to 2.60 per cent in the current Budget estimates.

"At a time when the world is increasing education spending, India is cutting it. Education expenditure should be close to 5–6 per cent, but this Budget moves in the opposite direction," he alleged.

On fertiliser subsidy, Mitra alleged that allocation has been reduced from 4.04 per cent of total expenditure in 2015-16 to 3.19 per cent in the current Budget estimates. "This is a critical cut and is anti-farmer," he said.

He also flagged reduced allocations for weaker sections of the society-- Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, OBCs and minorities, stating that spending declined from 0.21 per cent of the total Budget in 2015-16 to 0.19 per cent, and is estimated to fall further.

Questioning the credibility of announced Budget figures, Mitra pointed to wide gaps between Budget estimates, revised estimates and actual expenditure in major schemes.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Sunday (February 1) hit back at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, saying that India's economic fundamentals are strong and the Budget addresses the needs of all sections of society.

"With due respect, I don't know what course correction he (Gandhi) is referring to. Economy and its fundamentals are strong. Global uncertainty is facing many of our sectors for whom we have brought in so many different schemes for those small and medium enterprises, textiles, leather...for farmers and women entrepreneurs," she said.

These are ways in which the government is reaching out to the common small people and making sure that they are receiving the benefit of various schemes, she said in customary post-Budget interaction with the media.

She was reacting to the Leader of the Opposition's comment in a post on X, which said, "Youth without jobs. Falling manufacturing. Investors pulling out capital. Household savings plummeting. Farmers in distress. Looming global shocks - all ignored. A Budget that refuses course correction, blind to India’s real crises." Observing that Lakhpati Didis is a fantastic difference made to women in the rural areas, she said Self-Help Entrepreneur (SHE) Marts will be set up as community-owned retail outlets within the cluster level federations through enhanced and innovative financing instruments.

"The fundamentals of the economy remain strong and that has come out even in the economic survey. So, well, politically you want to criticize...You are welcome, please do it. But if you want to give me the facts on which you're basing your argument, I'm willing to hear and willing to reply to that," she added.

Announcing Budget earlier in the day in the Lok Sabha, Sithraman said "since we assumed office 12 years ago, India’s economic trajectory has been marked by stability, fiscal discipline, sustained growth and moderate inflation. This is the result of conscious choices we have made, even in times of heightened uncertainty and disruption.

"We have pursued far-reaching structural reforms, fiscal prudence and monetary stability whilst maintaining a strong thrust on public investment. Keeping atmanirbharta as a lodestar, we have built domestic manufacturing capacity, energy security and reduced critical import dependencies," she said.

While the country remained glued to the Lok Sabha on Sunday (February 1), hearing what Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman would unveil under her ninth straight Budget, one state that stood to gain much is Uttar Pradesh. She came up with gifts for Varanasi, the constituency of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, to accelerate the development of the state’s Purvanchal region.

Also, through laying out a plan for a major infrastructure push targeting cities with more than five lakh people, Sitharaman aimed to benefit the state by bringing 25 of its cities under the purview of the urban push.

Although the northern state, which is a political prize for the parties, is not among those that are immediately heading to elections, it remained a recipient of several benefits under the latest Budget. Among them are proposals for high-speed rail corridors to the development of handlooms, which will benefit the existing One District One Product (ODOP) scheme in UP.

Read the full article here

Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aaditya Thackeray on Sunday (February 1) said with the Union Budget 2026-27, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has not instilled any confidence in citizens about addressing economic instability, and has ignored Maharashtra, the largest contributor to the government's treasury.

Taking to X, the former Maharashtra minister took a dig at the BJP government, saying it would truly be a "gift" for India if it thought about issues beyond elections.

Yes it’s a Union Budget and we’re supposed to be speaking of the entire nation.
But the nation is made up of states, and in the last decade, the bjp has changed the rules.

Maharashtra, the largest contributor to the union govt’s treasury, is not even an afterthought.
Be it…

— Aaditya Thackeray (@AUThackeray) February 1, 2026

"Maharashtra, the largest contributor to the Union government's treasury, is not even an afterthought. Be it GDP, GST, Income Tax, Maharashtra is the largest contributor and proportionally most ignored," he wrote in his post.

He said that in the Union Budget, the government is supposed to be speaking for the entire nation. The nation comprises states, and over the last decade, the BJP has changed the rules.

The Sena (UBT) leader also criticised the announcement about the development of city economic regions (CERs), with a proposed allocation of Rs 5,000 crore per region over five years.

The announcement is a major joke after wrapping up a "failed Smart City programme" after over a decade, with no clarity, he said.

The government will launch a multi-lingual artificial intelligence tool 'Bharat-VISTAAR' to integrate agristack portals and ICAR package on farm practices, a move that will help provide customised advisory support to farmers.

In her budget speech on Sunday, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced the launch of 'Bharat-VISTAAR (Virtually Integrated System to Access Agricultural Resources)'.

"I propose to launch Bharat-VISTAAR — a multilingual AI tool that shall integrate the AgriStack portals and the ICAR package on agricultural practices with AI systems. This will enhance farm productivity, enable better decisions for farmers and reduce risk by providing customised advisory support," she said.

Commenting on the Budget proposal, Ankur Aggarwal, Chairman of CropLife India, said integrating Agri Stack’s digital farmer records with ICAR’s validated package of practices can support more precise, need-based decisions at the field level.

"However, digital advisory delivers results only when it is backed by effective on-ground extension systems that ensure guidance reaches farmers in time and is applied correctly in local conditions," he added.