Rahul Attuluri, CEO and Co-Founder of NxtWave Disruptive Technologies
The Union Budget 2026 lays a strong focus on emerging technologies, particularly AI, as core drivers of Viksit Bharat, signalling a shift from degree-centric education to skill-centric employability. Union Budget 2026–27 is truly a Yuva Shakti–driven budget, with a renewed emphasis on education, skills, creative industries, and employment pathways to fulfil the aspirations of Indias youth. The Finance Ministers proposal to set up an Education to Employment standing committee is a timely and much-needed move. The budgets push to expand higher education capacity and improve student access through scale, inclusion, and strengthened infrastructure will help create vibrant learning ecosystems and build a future-ready education system for students across Bharat. The focus on assessing AIs impact on jobs and aligning skills with future demand positions India to build a globally competitive workforce and move closer to a 10% share of the global services economy by 2047.
Karun Tadepalli, Co-Founder & CEO, byteXL Pvt Ltd
The Union Budget sends a clear and decisive message that Indias growth story will be powered by human capital, deep tech, and employability at scale. The governments continued emphasis on skill development, AI-driven learning, research, and greater participation of women in STEM reflects a shift from education as access to education as outcomes.
For companies like ours, this marks an important inflection point. The last few years have seen the edtech winter, but with the AI-focused investments and policy support, we are confident this is the path to long-term, impact-led skilling. This Budget reinforces that the future lies not in course delivery alone, but in building integrated partnerships with universities, industry, and government to create job-ready talent. Skilling must move from being transactional to transformational.
We see strong potential in the governments push to strengthen Indias digital infrastructure, with the long tax holiday for foreign cloud firms to operate through Indian data centres. Expanding domestic data centre capacity and improving access to affordable cloud and compute infrastructure can be a game changer for startups and skilling companies alike.
I believe the real opportunity is to embed industry-aligned curricula within campuses, enable hands-on learning with emerging technologies, and bridge the gap between academic knowledge and real-world application. I see this Budget as a strong call to action for skilling players to evolve into true talent partners, working closely with institutions and enterprises to deliver measurable career outcomes. With the right execution, India can move beyond being a talent supplier to becoming the worlds most trusted hub for tech-ready, innovation-driven professionals.
Rajiv Chilaka, Founder & CEO, Green Gold Animation, said:
The Finance Ministers renewed focus on the AVGC sector and structured content creation at both school and college levels is a transformative step for Indias creative economy. By establishing Animation, VFX, Gaming and Comics Content Creator Labs across thousands of educational institutions, the government is building a deep, sustainable talent pipeline aligned with the industrys projected requirement of nearly 2 million professionals by 2030.
What is particularly encouraging is the strong push this will give to regional content creators, enabling talent beyond metro cities to access world-class tools, training, and production ecosystems. This will accelerate original IP creation in local languages, expand employment opportunities, and fuel Indias cultural exports globally.
These measures not only strengthen skill development but also lay the foundation for India to emerge as a global hub for high-value digital content, gaming, and animation production. For the industry, this is a commercially significant and future-ready policy direction that will unlock long-term growth, innovation, and global competitiveness.
