A proactive Budget for Viksit Bharat

India is heading towards Viksit Bharat by 2047, with an average GDP growth of 6.5 per cent.

- KARNATI KIRAN KUMAR

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman shows the budget tablet at the Ministry of Finance, Kartavya Bhavan, before heading to the Parliament to present the Union Budget 2026 in New Delhi on Sunday. Chief Economic Advisor V. Anantha Nageswaran also seen.

The goal of Viksit Bharat can be achieved if the country's annual growth rate exceeds 7 per cent in the coming years. It can be achieved through the cooperation and contributions of all States and Union Territories (UTs), where politically, socially, geographically, and demographically, advantages and disadvantages exist among them. All states and UTs need to harness resources to maintain GSDP growth above 7 per cent per annum. Moreover, across the world, geopolitical tensions are surging, disrupting the smooth flow of supply chains and affecting the fair flow of imports and exports of goods and services. In this context, it is necessary to be self-sufficient, self-sustainable, and self-reliant to avoid disturbances and to become a developed nation by 2045, as emphasised by the Honourable Prime Minister.

Since gaining independence, we have prioritised both a restricted trade policy and an import substitution strategy. Moreover, the export of manufacturing and industrial goods and services has received little attention from policymakers. Instead, the economy focused on primary product exports, which are less valuable than machinery and other necessary inputs imported. Furthermore, relying only on the importation of defence products while ignoring their production. As a result, the nation has faced balance-of-payments issues and trade deficits over the years.