Tech leaders seek Budget backing for AI, cyber and fintech infrastructure
NEW DELHI, Jan 12 (The CONNECT) -As India readies Union Budget 2026, leaders from AI, cybersecurity, fintech and BFSI are urging the government to treat digital technologies not as peripheral innovations but as core national infrastructure critical to growth, resilience and global competitiveness.
Ankush Sabharwal, Founder and CEO of CoRover, said the upcoming budget should firmly position artificial intelligence as foundational digital infrastructure for India’s next phase of growth. While initiatives such as IndiaAI and DPI-led innovation have set the direction, he believes Budget 2026 must significantly expand support for indigenous large language models, agentic AI platforms and sovereign AI stacks tailored for India’s linguistic and sectoral diversity. Sabharwal pointed to the need for higher allocations for GPU infrastructure, regulatory sandboxes and outcome-linked incentives that encourage AI adoption in public services, MSMEs and Bharat-centric solutions. With focused investments in talent, compliance and compute, he said India has the potential to democratise AI access and emerge as the world’s leading hub for applied AI.
Echoing the infrastructure-first approach, Dipesh Ranjan, Senior Vice President, Sales at Cyble, stressed that cyber resilience must advance in step with India’s digital and economic ambitions. He noted that the rapid expansion of AI, cloud adoption and digital public infrastructure has elevated cyber threats from being an IT concern to a national economic and security risk. Ranjan said Budget 2026 should prioritise investments in advanced threat intelligence, AI-driven cybersecurity platforms and deeper public-private partnerships. He added that funding for cyber skill development and awareness programmes is essential to help businesses, government agencies and citizens respond to evolving threats, while a clearly articulated cybersecurity framework would strengthen investor confidence and reinforce India’s position as a trusted digital economy.
From the fintech perspective, Rohit Mahajan, Founder and Managing Partner of plutos ONE, said the sector must now be recognised as the backbone of India’s economy rather than merely a startup category. With monthly UPI transactions exceeding 12 billion and digital payments accounting for over three-quarters of retail transaction volumes, Mahajan said the priority should shift to strengthening core payment and financial rails such as NPCI, Bharat Connect and BBPS. He called for increased investment in resilience, cybersecurity and interoperability, alongside support for MSMEs and Bharat through invoice-based, data-led financial products. A forward-looking budget, he added, would enable Indian fintech firms to compete globally while preparing the domestic market for the next generation of financial products.
Anurag Jain, Founder and CEO of Oriserve, said BFSI enterprises are entering a phase where scale, compliance and efficiency must progress together. With transaction volumes rising and regulatory expectations tightening, he argued that Budget 2026 should move beyond short-term automation incentives towards sustained investment in long-term digital infrastructure. Jain said stronger support is needed for enterprise AI adoption in regulated sectors, particularly in areas such as data security, indigenous language technologies and responsible automation. Clear policy direction on AI governance, incentives for India-first R&D and continued investment in digital public infrastructure, he said, would help BFSI institutions treat technology as core infrastructure, driving faster customer engagement, lower costs and stronger compliance.
Together, industry voices suggest Budget 2026 represents a pivotal opportunity to hardwire AI, cybersecurity and fintech into India’s economic architecture, laying the groundwork for trusted, scalable and globally competitive digital growth.
