File photo: Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman poses with government officials while holding a folder with the Indian government emblem as she leaves her official residence to present the annual federal budget in Parliament on February 1, 2026 in New Delhi, India. Reuters/Altaf Hussain/File photoNew Delhi: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said while presenting the Union Budget on Sunday that the application of artificial intelligence (AI) can improve governance in India.
“Cutting-edge technologies, including AI applications, can play a role as a force multiplier for achieving better governance,” Sitharaman said in the Union Budget speech for 2026-27.
The Finance Minister has submitted a budget bill for the ninth time in a row.
Budget 2027 is set against a complex background. Although domestic demand is holding up and inflation has slowed from recent highs, global uncertainties such as geopolitical tensions, volatile commodity prices and uneven monetary easing by major central banks continue to cloud the outlook. Domestically, the government faces pressure to boost consumption, accelerate job creation and increase capital investment while keeping the fiscal deficit on a declining trajectory, news agency PTI reported on the same day.
“The government has taken several steps to support new technologies through the AI Mission, the National Quantum Mission, the Anusandhan National Research Fund, and the Research, Development and Innovation Fund (RDI).”
The Finance Minister launched an AI-assisted multilingual tool ‘Bharat Vistar’ (an acronym for ‘Virtual Integrated System for Accessing Agricultural Resources’) to integrate the AgriStack portal and ICAR packages on agricultural practices with the AI system. “This increases farm productivity, enables better decision-making for farmers, and reduces risk by providing tailored advisory support,” Sitharaman said.
