2025-2026 Indian Budget: ₹4.91 Lakh Crore Allocated for Defense, Key Announcements by Nirmala Sitharaman.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented India's 2025-2026 Budget, announcing significant allocations, including ₹4.91 lakh crore for defense and ₹1.71 lakh crore for agriculture. Key highlights include a ₹12 lakh income tax exemption, removal of customs duty on lithium batteries for electric vehicles, and increased investments in sectors like education, healthcare, and transportation. The budget also compares defense allocations between India, China, and the US, offering insight into global defense spending trends.
Delhi: Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the 2025-2026 budget today for the eighth time. In this budget, ₹4.91 lakh crore has been allocated for the military. As India plays a leading role in military strength, with ₹5 lakh crore allocated for its defense, we can also take a look at the allocations for security in India’s competitive countries, China and the USA.
In her budget presentation today, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman made several important announcements. The much-awaited income tax upper limit has been raised to ₹12 lakh. It was expected that the exemption would be increased up to ₹10 lakh, but it has now been raised to ₹12 lakh.
Sitharaman, who spoke for 1 hour and 14 minutes, made many other significant announcements. One of these was aimed at boosting electric vehicle sales. She announced that customs duties on lithium batteries used in electric vehicles would be completely waived. This is expected to lower the prices of electric vehicles.
While global leaders like US President Donald Trump have prioritized diesel and petrol, in India, the government has made an important announcement to boost the electric vehicle market. In addition to this, details of budget allocations for key sectors have also been released. India has allocated ₹4.91 lakh crore for its defense sector and ₹1.71 lakh crore for agriculture.
How do the USA and China compare? As India allocates around ₹5 lakh crore for its defense, let's see how much the competitive countries, China and the USA, have allocated for their security.
The USA has allocated ₹66 lakh crore for its military.
Similarly, our neighboring country, China, has allocated ₹23 lakh crore for its military.
Here are the sector-wise budget allocations as per Nirmala Sitharaman's presentation:
Defense: ₹4,91,732 crore
Agriculture: ₹1,71,437 crore
Education: ₹1,28,650 crore
Healthcare: ₹98,311 crore
Home Affairs: ₹2,33,211 crore
IT and Telecom: ₹95,298 crore
Rural Development: ₹2,66,817 crore
Urban Development: ₹96,777 crore
Transport: ₹5,48,649 crore
Energy: ₹81,174 crore
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