In her Budget speech, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman mentioned the 21st century is technology-driven. The government intends to prepare India’s workforce, infrastructure and regulatory architecture for that future. “Adoption of technology is for the benefit of all people—farmers in the field, women in STEM, youth keen to upskill and divyangjan (people with disabilities) to access newer opportunities.”
Sitharaman highlighted the government’s efforts to build a strong foundation for deep‑tech innovation, citing ongoing missions such as the AI Mission, National Quantum Mission, Anusandhan National Research Fund and the Research, Development and Innovation Fund. These, she said, reflect the government’s commitment to ensuring that India does not miss the next wave of technological disruption.
In a major structural reform, the FM proposed a high‑powered ‘Education to Employment and Enterprise’ standing committee tasked with turning India’s services sector into a global leader. “This will make us a global leader in services, with a 10 percent global share by 2047,” she said.
The Committee will, assess how emerging technologies, including AI, will impact jobs and skill requirements. It will also recommend measures to optimise growth, employment and exports and align academia, training systems and industry needs in real time.
This shows a clear acknowledgement that technology adoption must go hand in hand with workforce transformation. “Strengthening AI literacy at scale across engineers, managers and frontline workers will ensure that India not only builds world-class infrastructure but also develops the human capital required to extract maximum value from it, enabling inclusive and sustainable growth,” says Jaspreet Bindra, co-founder and CEO, AI&Beyond, a platform for AI literacy.
One of the most concrete AI deployments in the Budget is Bharat‑VISTAAR, a multilingual AI tool designed to transform agriculture. As Sitharaman announced, the tool “shall integrate the AgriStack portals and the ICAR package on agricultural practices with AI systems”. Its purpose, she said, is to, “enhance farm productivity, enable better decisions for farmers and reduce risk by providing customised advisory support”.
This represents a shift from fragmented advisories to a unified, AI driven agricultural intelligence system. Akshay Garkel, partner and leader-cyber, Grant Thornton Bharat, explains: “With capabilities like real-time weather forecasts, pest detection, multilingual chatbots and seamless access to government support, the platform can help farmers anticipate challenges rather than react to them.” It holds potential to reshape India’s agricultural landscape by making decision-making more precise, predictable and profitable for millions of farmers. “By integrating AI with AgriStack and ICAR advisories in multiple languages, it can support better decisions on crops, inputs, and markets, especially for smallholder and first-generation women farmers,” says Anand Chandra, co-founder & executive director, Arya.ag.
The finance minister also outlined a sweeping set of AI‑forward education reforms. These include embedding AI into school curricula from an early stage, upgrading State Councils of Educational Research and Training to equip teachers with AI‑aligned pedagogy, and launching largescale upskilling and reskilling programmes for engineers and technology professionals. She said the proposals seek to “embed AI in the education curriculum school level onwards” and “propose measures for upskilling and re‑skilling of technology professionals/engineers in AI and emerging technologies”.
Overall, the Budget’s emphasis on largescale capacity-building AI missions marks a structural shift in how India is preparing for an AI-driven economy. Mahesh Makhija, leader and partner, technology consulting, EY India, says, “The government is building the foundational layers for sustainable AI adoption rather than fragmented pilots. This integrated approach can accelerate productivity across industries, strengthen indigenous innovation, and make public services more responsive and efficient.”
First Published: Feb 01, 2026, 14:52
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