Major announcement in Budget: A high-powered committee will be formed to assess the impact of AI, and opportunities for youth will increase..

The central government has decided to form a new committee to understand the impact of new technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI) and ensure their proper utilization. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced that a high-powered standing committee will be constituted to review the impact of AI on the services sector.

During her budget speech, she said that to fulfill the aspirations of a young India, the government wants to create a robust system connecting education, employment, and entrepreneurship. The standing committee, named ‘Education to Employment and Enterprises’, will be formed with this objective in mind and will provide suggestions, considering the services sector as a major engine of economic growth.

Committee to explore AI-related opportunities
The Finance Minister clarified that in the Union Budget 2026, the government has chosen the path of reforms over rhetoric. She reiterated that India will continue to move steadily towards becoming a ‘developed India’. The focus of this new committee will be on identifying the opportunities present in the services sector and setting priorities for their optimal utilization.

The Union Budget 2026 is Nirmala Sitharaman's ninth consecutive budget. With this, she has come quite close to the record of former Prime Minister Morarji Desai, who presented 10 budgets.

Before the budget, major tech companies in the country had hoped that the government would take concrete steps to strengthen the AI ​​ecosystem. These included issues such as innovation, expansion of digital infrastructure, and increasing market liquidity to promote the adoption of AI across different sectors.

Emphasis on creating practical AI models
The Economic Survey, presented in Parliament on January 29 before the budget, stated that India will not get caught up in a prestige race regarding AI. The Economic Survey clearly stated that the country's advantage lies not in creating expensive AI models like those of the US and China, but in creating affordable and practical models. The survey advocated a bottom-up, sector-specific approach to AI, based on open and interoperable systems, to foster collaboration and shared innovation. In addition, the Finance Minister announced an increase of approximately 9 percent in capital expenditure (capex) for the upcoming financial year. The allocation for capex in the 2026-27 budget has been increased to ₹12.2 lakh crore, a move considered crucial for boosting economic growth.

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