India’s new annual budget prioritizes fiscal discipline and manufacturing in critical sectors but nevertheless failed to impress investors hoping to see bolder reforms to meet the turbulent geopolitical moment.
While Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government is aiming for a lower fiscal deficit and more infrastructure investments, Indian stock indexes fell 2% in a special Sunday trading session.
The budget lacks urgency, a journalist argued in The Core, given the “rupture in the global order, in which an isolationist US… is no longer a reliable source of support for India.”
New Delhi, he wrote, should dramatically step up spending on defense, research, and education to support its geopolitical stance of strategic autonomy and help its workforce in the face of AI-driven disruptions.