Union Budget 2026 puts India’s creative & digital economy at front

The Union Budget 2026, presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on 1 February 2026, underscored a broader shift toward a digital-first, content-centric economic framework. For the first time, India’s creative and digital media sectors were explicitly elevated in state policy as engines of future growth and employment.

A key highlight was the government’s focus on India’s creative and content economy. The Budget announced support for setting up AVGC (Animation, Visual Effects, Gaming and Comics) Content Creator Labs across 15,000 secondary schools and 500 colleges, signalling formal recognition of creative talent as an economic asset and addressing the sector’s growing demand for skilled professionals.

The Budget also reinforced India’s move towards a digital-first economy, with continued investments in AI, digital public infrastructure, and innovation-led services. Measures aimed at strengthening MSMEs, easing access to credit, and improving digital governance were positioned as enablers for faster growth across consumption-driven sectors. Alongside this, infrastructure development, skilling initiatives, tourism-linked growth, and services sector expansion remained central to the broader economic roadmap.

Taken together, the Interim Budget 2026 set the tone for future-facing growth, where creativity, technology, and talent intersect with demand creation and consumer behaviour. Here’s what leaders from the advertising and marketing industry had to say on how the Budget impacts brands, agencies, and the evolving content economy.

Abhinay Kumar Singh, Founder & MD, Adgcraft Communications

Union Budget 2026 sets an intelligence-first foundation for India’s long-term approach that places artificial intelligence, innovation, and value creation at the centre of India’s growth strategy. The ₹10,000 crore SME Growth Fund and strengthened liquidity support will empower small enterprises to grow efficiently. The launch of AVGC Content Creator Labs in 15,000 schools and 500 colleges, alongside recognition of the AVGC sector as a major employer, signals a transformative future for creative professionals. The focus on AI-powered skill development through the Education to Employment and Enterprise Standing Committee ensures that India’s workforce is future-ready, competitive, and aligned with global standards. These visionary initiatives not only strengthen India’s startup landscape but also set up a stage for inclusive, innovation-led growth that empowers creators, entrepreneurs, and communities nationwide, supporting our vision toward Atmanirbharta and making India a global innovation hub."

Anand Bhadkamkar, Group CFO, LS Digital

The Union Budget 2026 reinforces the government’s commitment to driving inclusive growth by building future-ready economic capabilities. The emphasis on innovation-led services, with AI and emerging technologies positioned as force multipliers, reflects a clear focus on enhancing competitiveness while expanding access to opportunity. Sustained investment in research, skilling, and digital infrastructure provides a strong foundation for long-term value creation.

Initiatives such as Bharat-VISTAAR and the proposal to establish AVGC Content Creator Labs across 15,000 schools and 500 colleges signal a forward-looking approach to talent development. This is well aligned with the AVGC sector’s projected requirement of nearly two million professionals by 2030. For services-led and digital-first enterprises, this Budget offers clarity and confidence strengthening India’s ability to scale innovation, fulfil aspirations, and compete globally in the next phase of growth.

Atul Hegde - Founder & MD, YAAP

The Budget’s acknowledgement of the AVGC ecosystem goes beyond gaming or animation as sectors - it reflects a deeper understanding of how India’s youth learn, create and participate in the digital economy. By proposing AVGC Content Creator Labs across schools and colleges, the government is effectively recognising content creation, visual storytelling and interactive media as mainstream career pathways rather than side hustle.

For Gen Z and Gen Alpha, creativity is native, platform-led and community-driven. Early exposure to structured tools, mentorship and digital infrastructure can help convert informal passion into employable skills and sustainable careers. This move also bridges a long-standing gap between education and real-world digital behaviour, ensuring young creators are not just consumers of platforms but confident contributors to India’s creative and cultural economy.

Jag Chima, Co-founder at IPLIX Media

The budget recognises what the market already shows. The creator economy is a serious economic engine right now, influencing hundreds of billions in annual consumer spending and supporting significant livelihoods. India’s creator ecosystem already contributes materially to GDP and jobs, and structured creator labs linked with AVGC institutes will accelerate that growth by building deeper capabilities and career pathways. This isn’t just talent development, it’s infrastructure for the future of work and digital economic growth, and positions India to lead globally in how modern creative economies scale.

Kalyan Kumar, Co-Founder & CEO, KlugKlug

The Union Budget 2026 recognises the growing importance of the creator economy as part of India’s services-driven growth. The establishment of AVGC Content Creator Labs across 15,000 secondary schools and 500 colleges is a landmark step towards building structured talent pipelines and formalising the digital content ecosystem. Such initiatives can nurture early-stage creators and help India emerge as a global hub for digital storytelling and creative exports.

Additionally, tax reforms supporting IT and digital services, including automated safe harbour approvals and extended safe harbour thresholds from ₹300 crore to ₹2,000 crore, create a more predictable regulatory environment for digital platforms and influencer-driven businesses. These measures reflect the government’s understanding of the digital economy as both an economic and cultural growth driver. We believe structured skilling initiatives combined with supportive regulatory frameworks will accelerate monetisation opportunities and professionalisation across India’s rapidly expanding creator economy.

Mayank Shah, Chief Marketing Officer, Parle Products

The Union Budget is a positive step towards reviving consumer demand, especially at a time when spending has been under pressure for the past few years. The continued focus on improving rural incomes and supporting agriculture is reassuring, as it directly impacts consumption across essential categories. Initiatives like the PLI outlay for food processing will also help strengthen the FMCG ecosystem by improving efficiencies and encouraging long-term investments.

Efforts to boost organised retail, simplify export norms for smaller sellers, and push infrastructure development across urban and rural India are equally encouraging. With inflation and input costs having weighed on purchasing power, these measures can help rebuild consumer confidence and drive steady demand recovery. Overall, the Budget sets the stage for more balanced and inclusive growth, creating a supportive environment for consumption to pick up sustainably over the long term.

Mohit Goyal, Co Founder & Director, Swiss Beauty

The Union Budget 2026–27 meaningfully strengthens India’s retail and FMCG operating ecosystem by addressing critical growth enablers such as capital access, liquidity and ease of compliance. The ₹10,000 crore MSME and SME Growth Funds, along with enhanced liquidity through TReDS and credit guarantees, will significantly strengthen the backbone of customer-facing industries like beauty and personal care by improving working-capital efficiency and vendor resilience. For Swiss Beauty, which sources high-grade ingredients globally and adheres to stringent BIS-led quality and safety standards, the reduction of the tariff rate on all dutiable goods imported for personal use from 20% to 10%, alongside a more efficient trade and logistics environment, will support cost efficiencies, supply-chain flexibility, consistency, innovation and scalable growth. The Budget’s focus on infrastructure, services, skills, and consumption-led expansion across Tier-2 and Tier-3 markets lays a strong foundation for building globally competitive Indian beauty brands while enabling sustainable and inclusive growth.

Prashanth Naik, Co-founder and Head of Technology/Creative, IndieVisual

The Union Budget outlines a broad push towards strengthening India’s innovation and creative ecosystem. Within this, the emphasis on AI adoption and innovation funding is encouraging, with the real opportunity lying in how effectively these initiatives translate into action through AI missions and research. Platforms like TReDS can also play a meaningful role in enabling MSMEs and startups by improving access to timely working capital. India’s young talent base continues to drive innovation across technology and creative sectors, and with AVGC alone expected to require nearly two million professionals by 2030, sustained policy support and execution can help strengthen India’s position in applied, AI-driven creative solutions globally.

Prrincey Roy. Co-Founder & CEO, Huella Services

It is encouraging to see that the government has placed strong emphasis on artificial intelligence as a driver of inclusive growth and national progress. Today, AI is at the forefront of innovations in the Adtech industry. This push towards AI signals a clear intent to future-proof India’s growth story. The government is backing national AI and research missions alongside quantum and deep-tech innovation. This is a testament to the fact that technology can be a powerful equaliser in driving inclusion and unlocking new economic opportunities. For startups and innovation-led enterprises, this sustained focus on R&D and emerging tech creates a more confident environment to scale solutions that can have both national and global impact.

Praveen Nijhara, CEO at Hansa Research

The Budget now places a strong focus on the services sector, supported by the development of City Economic Regions and technology-led governance systems that are accelerating India’s transition to a data-driven economy. Investments spanning tourism ecosystem development, large-scale skilling, and institutional strengthening—along with AI positioned as a force multiplier—are expected to drive rapid shifts in consumer behaviour, risk perception and purchase pathways across insurance, FMCG, travel and financial services. Tax relief measures linked to mobility and travel, combined with improvements in ease of living, will further shape demand patterns and consumption intent. In this environment, organisations that can translate policy-led structural shifts into timely, evidence-based consumer and market insights will be best positioned to capture sustainable growth.

Rahul Shanker, Group CEO, Quest Retail (The Body Shop India)

The Union Budget reflects a clear shift towards building long-term resilience in India’s growth story. The emphasis on infrastructure development, services-led growth, and digital integration directly supports consumer-facing sectors such as beauty and personal care. Investments in manufacturing ecosystems, urban and regional economic clusters, and skills aligned to emerging technologies will strengthen supply chains and improve market access.
For large retail and brand-led businesses, these measures create the right environment to expand responsibly into Tier-2, Tier-3 and rural markets, unlock new consumer demand, and accelerate the creation of globally competitive Indian brands. By supporting consumption and improving ease of doing business across the value chain, the Budget lays the groundwork for inclusive and sustained growth.

Rajiv Kumar, Vice Chairman, DS Group

The budget strikes a balance between fiscal stability and aggressive growth, positioning India for a resilient economic future. For the FMCG sector, the Viksit Bharat agenda serves as a vital catalyst by synchronising demand and supply-side enablers. Specific interventions in agriculture, like push for the production of cocoa, fisheries and animal husbandry, are poised to boost rural incomes.  Simultaneously, the expansion of TReDS and improved credit access will alleviate working capital pressures for distributors and contract manufacturers, fortifying the entire FMCG ecosystem.
 
On the operational front, significant outlays for freight corridors, inland waterways and Tier II-III infrastructure are expected to lower logistics overheads and bridge the gap in last-mile connectivity, encouraging deeper regional penetration. These logistical gains, paired with a focus on domestic manufacturing, chemical parks and energy security, will help stabilise input costs against global volatility.
 
The regulatory environment encourages growth and Ease of Doing Business. The shift from penalty to fee-based compliance, together with incentives for data-driven IT strength, enables businesses to shift attention from regulatory issues to digital optimisation. In addition, the simplification of customs duties and the digitalisation of GST procedures will improve supply chain predictability and help with export competitiveness. Finally, the budget covers the basic pillars of productivity by connecting tourism and wellness, with mass-scale skill development. This comprehensive strategy promotes a productive population and a seamless business environment, thereby cementing India’s long-term growth trajectory and ensuring a sustainable consumption story for the future years.

Saugata Gupta, MD & CEO, Marico Limited

The Union Budget 2026–27 lays out India’s growth strategy with a clear focus on sustained public investment, manufacturing scale-up, support to MSMEs, employment generation and fiscal consolidation, a decisive shift towards people-first, consumption-led growth aligned with the vision of Viksit Bharat.

The continued emphasis on enhancing agricultural incomes through higher productivity and value addition is structurally positive for rural and semi-urban demand, creating sustained tailwinds for consumption.

At the same time, the thrust on strengthening MSMEs and legacy industrial clusters, supported by improved access to credit and deeper formalisation, will further improve domestic supply chains, particularly across Tier II and Tier III markets. This is complemented by the public capital expenditure target of ₹12.2 lakh crore and continued investments in freight corridors, inland waterways and multimodal logistics, which are expected to enhance distribution networks, improve supply chain efficiencies and enable faster scale up of emerging consumption hubs.

The Budget positions technology-backed artificial intelligence as a powerful driver of inclusive growth. Initiatives such as Bharat VISTAAR are an encouraging step towards boosting farm productivity, while the expanded AI Mission and enhanced R&D focus are set to accelerate innovation and services across sectors. Collectively, these measures reflect a strong commitment to leveraging technology to bridge regional, income and capability gaps.

Additionally, the simplification of compliance reflects the government’s intent to build trust-based governance.

Overall, this Budget reflects a consistent, reform-first approach anchored in fiscal prudence, infrastructure-led development and inclusive growth, creating a supportive ecosystem for long-term, consumption-driven growth across both urban and rural India. The emphasis is firmly on execution, competitiveness and long-term capacity building as we advance towards becoming an Atmanirbhar Bharat.

Siddharth Devnani, Co-founder and COO SoCheers

Budget 2026 makes one thing clear: technology is no longer just a support system but a quintessential strategy for development. With serious capital flowing into AI, semiconductors, digital infrastructure, and deep tech, the government is laying pipes for a truly ‘Viksit Bharat’.

For the Ad and brand ecosystem, this is a crucial moment. As AI models, data centers, and creator labs scale, brands will have unprecedented access to speed, precision, and reach. The risk, however, is mistaking efficiency for effectiveness. In an attention economy already crowded with familiarity, memes, and moment marketing, recall is easy to manufacture. Resonance is not.

This budget pushes us to think beyond visibility. Smarter AI investments, stronger digital foundations, and clearer data policies give brands the opportunity to build memory, trust, and cultural relevance only if we choose depth over noise.

Siddharth Jalan, Founder, SquidJC 

The government’s continued emphasis on strengthening design education through institutional support is encouraging, especially as India’s creative economy continues to mature. However, the announcement around content creator labs leaves some unanswered questions. While content creation is undoubtedly a growing industry, the outcome the government is aiming to achieve through these labs remains unclear. Content today is largely market-driven, platform-led, and creator-owned. Without a defined end goal, be it skilling, monetization, or global competitiveness, the impact of such initiatives may be limited. A more structured roadmap linking design thinking, storytelling, and commercial viability could help truly unlock value for India’s creative and content ecosystem.

While artificial intelligence featured prominently in this year’s budget, India’s approach still feels largely reactionary. The focus appears to be on adoption rather than on building core, original AI capabilities. Today, most innovation in the ecosystem relies on AI wrappers rather than the development of indigenous large language models or tools. Without a clear roadmap for data access, compute infrastructure, and research incentives, it will be difficult for India to compete globally in AI development. That said, the renewed focus on data centres could be an early signal toward building foundational AI infrastructure. The hope is that this is the first step in a more comprehensive strategy to create truly Indian AI capabilities.

Tamanna Gupta, Founder, Umanshi Marketing

The 2026 Budget is a clear signal that the government is pivoting from simple credit support to long-term equity and ecosystem depth. As a founder, I see the ₹10,000 crore SME Growth Fund as a massive catalyst. It isn’t just about survival anymore; it’s about giving MSMEs the risk capital they need to scale into 'Indian Champions.' For the marketing world, this translates to a surge in brands moving from local visibility to national and global storytelling.

The scale of digital ambition is equally staggering—nearly doubling the Electronics Component Manufacturing outlay to ₹40,000 crore and the push for the 'Orange Economy' through AVGC labs in 15,000 schools shows a commitment to the creative and tech-led workforce of the future. While the ₹12.2 lakh crore capex target will drive industrial demand, the success for agencies like ours will lie in helping these newly formalised MSMEs navigate a more sophisticated, AI-integrated marketplace. It’s a 'performance-first' budget, and we are ready to help brands meet that standard.

Teja Chekuri, Managing Partner, Ironhill

India Is Brewing a Smarter Hospitality Boom

What stood out for me in today’s Budget is the clear recognition that hospitality growth depends as much on people as it does on places. The focus on structured skill development programmes directly addresses one of the industry’s most persistent challenges of finding and retaining trained talent across brewing, service, and operations.

Equally significant is the decision to develop the top 50 tourist destinations in a challenge mode, while bringing hotels in these locations under the harmonised master list. Easier access to long-term, lower-cost financing is a real unlock for hospitality and alcobev brands looking to expand responsibly.

For companies like ours, operating at the intersection of craft beer, dining, and experience-led hospitality, this creates the right conditions to scale with better talent on the floor, stronger destinations to grow into, and capital that supports quality, not shortcuts. If executed well, these measures can meaningfully elevate India’s hospitality ecosystem and its global appeal.

Vaishal Dalal, Founder & CEO, Excellent Publicity

When manufacturing scales, the immediate challenge is no longer production but demand creation. As more products enter the market, especially from non-metro regions, advertising becomes critical in educating consumers, building preference, and differentiating brands. This is where marketing shifts from visibility to demand-led, performance-driven communication.

Yasin Hamidani, Director, Media Care Brand Solutions

First, I would like to highlight that this Budget delivers exactly what the advertising and marketing ecosystem needed at this stage: confidence, not noise. The sharper focus on MSME enablement, liquidity flow, and competitiveness directly impacts advertising because marketing spend is a downstream outcome of business stability. When MSMEs move from survival mode to scale mode, they invest in branding, content, and customer acquisition. Measures that improve access to capital, payment cycles, and digital readiness create the conditions for wider participation in advertising—especially from regional, challenger, and B2B brands that have traditionally been underrepresented in media spends.

Second, the sustained push on digital infrastructure strengthens the AdTech and MarTech backbone of the industry. Better connectivity and platform readiness allow brands to plan with greater precision across Tier II, Tier III, and rural India, accelerating regional storytelling, commerce-led marketing, and data-driven targeting rather than metro-centric mass planning.

Third, AI’s positioning is particularly important for the marketing ecosystem. It is no longer framed as a novelty layer but as a productivity and intelligence system across content creation, creative development, media planning, analytics, and automation. This enables agencies to build scalable operating models—where AI accelerates insights and execution while humans retain judgment, cultural nuance, and creative direction. The real shift is from campaign-led output to system-led marketing capabilities.

Finally, the Budget signals a move away from short-term visibility metrics toward long-term capability building. For brands and agencies, this encourages investment in owned platforms, content IP, creator ecosystems, and full-funnel strategies that compound value over time rather than chasing episodic spikes.