Deal-making will dominate 2025 and drive the budget

The FM needs to strike a deal that balances the interests of five groups amid an economic slowdown

- RAJRISHI SINGHAL

These winter months are turning out to be a season for deal-making, corporate or geopolitical. The annual deal-making Davos conference kicked off on 20 January, the same day a self-appointed deal-maker was sworn in as the next president of the United States. India observes an annual deal-making day on 1 February every year when the finance minister presents the budget. The budget is technically supposed to be a dull accounting statement but, by default, has become India's annual economic statement; in reality, it has always striven to strike deals between various sections of society through budgetary allocations and tax breaks.

Given the deal blizzard that has welcomed 2025, it will be interesting to see the deal structures finalized by finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman. A Goldman Sachs report on mergers and acquisitions for 2025 anticipates a stellar year for corporate deal-making as companies try to act on monetary policy normalization, easier regulations under the new US administration, artificial intelligence disrupting normal operations and a widespread corporate desire to rebalance portfolios. The report expects the M&A engine to accelerate through 2025, knocked occasionally by volatility caused by geopolitical shifts and a new tariff regime.