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By:

Akhilesh Sinha

25 June 2025 at 2:53:54 pm

Code for the Many

India wants artificial intelligence to serve development rather than deepen divides Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a meeting with his Bhutanese counterpart Tshering Tobgay in New Delhi. New Delhi:  As the IndiaAI Impact Summit 2026 enters its third day, India appears to be pressing a case that cuts against the grain of much global AI discourse. The summit has been framed by the Sanskrit maxim  sarvajan hitaya, sarvajan sukhaya  (for the welfare and happiness of all) and seeks to move the...

Code for the Many

India wants artificial intelligence to serve development rather than deepen divides Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a meeting with his Bhutanese counterpart Tshering Tobgay in New Delhi. New Delhi:  As the IndiaAI Impact Summit 2026 enters its third day, India appears to be pressing a case that cuts against the grain of much global AI discourse. The summit has been framed by the Sanskrit maxim  sarvajan hitaya, sarvajan sukhaya  (for the welfare and happiness of all) and seeks to move the debate beyond safety alarms and corporate rivalry towards a more pointed question: who, exactly, should benefit from artificial intelligence. Building on its advocacy in 2023 for fairer digital and financial access for the Global South, India is now positioning itself as a steward of a more democratic, human-centric AI that is meant to narrow, rather than entrench, global and domestic inequalities. That ambition builds on India’s posture at earlier global forums. In 2023, New Delhi argued that digital public infrastructure and concessional financing should be treated as global public goods, particularly for poorer nations. Three years on, the argument has sharpened. If AI is to shape growth, productivity and governance in the coming decades, India insists that its benefits must not mirror the inequalities of the industrial and digital revolutions before it. This sets India apart from the dominant poles of AI power. The United States and China have raced ahead with proprietary models and compute-heavy ecosystems. India, lacking the same scale of capital or chips, has instead emphasised deployment by asking how AI can be applied cheaply, widely and with human oversight. As Prime Minister Narendra Modi has often argued, AI is a double-edged tool: transformative when governed well, corrosive when left to markets alone. Stark Contrast The contrast with earlier summits is deliberate. Britain’s 2023 meeting at Bletchley Park fixated on catastrophic risks and frontier safety. South Korea’s Seoul summit in 2024 focused on scientific cooperation to mitigate harm. France’s Paris meeting in 2025 tried to tether AI to sustainability and public interest. India’s turn is broader and more political. The question it poses is not merely how to restrain AI, but how to distribute it. At the heart of the summit is an effort to make AI legible to ordinary citizens. Demonstrations are expected on its use in schools, hospitals, farms and welfare schemes, with particular emphasis on small towns and rural areas. The aim is to narrow what Indian officials increasingly describe as an “AI divide” between those who can exploit algorithms and those who remain invisible to them. The economic case is straightforward. AI-driven tools can raise productivity by automating routine work, improve hiring by reducing bias, and conserve energy through smarter consumption. In education, adaptive learning systems promise to personalise instruction in overcrowded classrooms. In agriculture, predictive models can guide farmers on soil health, pests and weather, lifting incomes while improving food security. In healthcare, AI-assisted diagnostics, from cancer detection in scans to remote patient monitoring, could compensate for India’s chronic shortage of doctors, especially outside cities. One of the summit’s most politically charged themes is road safety. India records between four and five lakh road accidents a year. According to figures cited in Parliament by Nitin Gadkari, 2024 alone saw 1.77 lakh fatalities, a third of them on national highways that make up just 2% of the road network. Officials argue that AI - through speed monitoring, pre-collision alerts and predictive traffic management - could dramatically cut deaths and emissions alike. Panels on data-driven transport policy will test how far such optimism can be translated into enforcement. Critics note that India still struggles with patchy data quality, weak local capacity and uneven internet access. Grand visions, they warn, risk dissolving into pilot projects. Yet that is precisely why New Delhi is pressing its case internationally. By pooling models, datasets and best practices, especially among countries of the Global South, it hopes to reduce costs and avoid dependence on a handful of foreign platforms. If successful, the IndiaAI Impact Summit will mark a shift in the global AI conversation. From fear to function; from concentration to diffusion. India is betting that the future of artificial intelligence will not be decided solely in data centres and boardrooms, but in classrooms, clinics, fields and highways. Whether the world follows is another matter. But New Delhi has made clear where it wants the argument to go.

Budget 2026: Cautious Today, Focused on Tomorrow

The budget places greater emphasis on long-term growth, structural reforms, and financial discipline rather than short-term relief.

The Union Budget 2026 has been presented at a time when the economy is showing steady growth yet continues to face persistent challenges such as inflationary pressures, unemployment concerns, and uncertainty in the global economic environment. Against this backdrop, the budget places greater emphasis on long-term growth, structural reforms, and financial discipline, rather than prioritising immediate or short-term relief measures.


Overall Fiscal Approach

The budget continues the government’s focus on containing the fiscal deficit while simultaneously increasing spending in productive and growth-orientated areas. Higher allocations have been made for capital expenditure, including investments in roads, railways, ports, and urban infrastructure. Such spending not only generates employment in the short term but also improves efficiency, boosts connectivity, and supports sustainable economic growth over the longer period.


At the same time, the government has consciously avoided large-scale giveaways or populist measures. This approach signals a clear intent to preserve financial stability, maintain investor confidence, and manage public debt in a cautious and responsible manner.


Impact on Taxpayers

For individual taxpayers, the budget offers stability rather than any significant relief. Income tax slabs have largely remained unchanged, which may come as a disappointment to the middle class that was hoping for meaningful tax cuts. In the context of rising living costs and inflation, the real benefit of existing tax provisions appears limited. As a result, tax planning will continue to operate within the current framework, relying on available deductions, exemptions, and investment-linked incentives.


For companies, the budget provides a sense of certainty and continuity. Corporate tax rates have been left unchanged, enabling businesses to plan future investments and expansion with greater clarity. Changes related to the taxation of share buybacks are aimed at reducing tax advantages available through specific routes and ensuring a more level playing field between dividends and buybacks. While these changes may increase the tax burden for some companies, they also simplify the tax structure and enhance transparency and fairness in the system.


GST and Compliance

On the GST front, the budget has not announced any major changes to tax rates, providing continuity and predictability for businesses. However, the government has clearly signalled a move towards stricter monitoring and enforcement through increased use of technology, data analytics, and invoice matching. As a result, businesses—particularly small and medium enterprises—will need to be more vigilant with return filings, reconciliations, and maintenance of proper documentation.


While compliance requirements may become more demanding, stronger enforcement measures can help curb tax evasion and promote a more level playing field. Over time, this is expected to improve overall tax discipline and foster fairer competition across markets.


Sectoral Focus

Infrastructure remains the biggest beneficiary of Budget 2026, with sustained investment in transport, logistics, and urban development continuing to be a key policy priority. Such spending is expected to stimulate economic activity across a wide range of sectors by improving connectivity, reducing costs, and enhancing overall productivity. Technology-focused areas, including digital infrastructure, cloud services, and artificial intelligence, have also received increased attention, reflecting the government’s emphasis on building a future-ready and innovation-driven economy.


At the same time, allocations for certain welfare schemes have seen only marginal increases. This has raised concerns about whether consumption demand, particularly from rural and lower-income groups, will see a meaningful boost in the short term.


Conclusion

Union Budget 2026 is cautious and forward-looking in its overall approach. It prioritises the creation of a strong and resilient economic base rather than offering immediate tax relief or short-term incentives. While certain sections of the population may feel some pressure due to limited short-term benefits, the budget seeks to lay the foundation for stable and sustainable growth over the long run. Its real success will ultimately depend on how effectively the announced measures are implemented, particularly through the efficient and timely use of the capital and revenue expenditure outlaid.


Disclaimer: This article represents a general opinion based on budget provisions and economic observations. It is not intended to support or oppose any political party or ideology.


(The writer is a Chartered Accountant based in Thane. Views personal.)

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