Pre-Budget meeting: Reforms to stay on top of agenda, signals PM Modi

Ahead of the Budget, Prime Minister Narendra Modi told economists that policymaking must stay aligned with India's 2047 vision, calling for mission-mode reforms and long-term growth focus

The Centre will continue to pursue the reform agenda in the coming years, said Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday. In a pre-Budget meeting with economists and sectoral experts, he called for a mission-mode revamp across diverse sectors to sustain India’s long-term growth and enhance the country’s capability and integration in the global arena. 

The PM, who termed 2025 a year of reforms in a social media post later in the day, said India’s policy making and budgeting must remain anchored with the vision for becoming a developed country by 2047, and emphasised the need to ensure India remains a vital hub for the global workforce and international markets.   

Speaking at the interaction with economists at NITI Aayog around the theme ‘Aatmanirbharta and Structural Transformation: Agenda for Viksit Bharat’ ahead of the Union Budget for 2026-27, the PM said India’s 2047 pursuit has now transcended government policy and become a genuine mass aspiration. “This shift is evident in the evolving patterns of education, consumption, and global mobility, necessitating enhanced institutional capacity and proactive infrastructure planning to meet the needs of an increasingly aspirational society,” he averred. 

Economists acknowledged “the unprecedented flurry of cross sectoral reforms in 2025” and said their further consolidation in the coming year will ensure that India continues to chart its path as one of the fastest growing global economies by strengthening its foundations and unlocking newer opportunities, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) said in a statement. 

During the meeting, attended by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and top government officials, some of the areas that economists shared insights on pertained to enhancing productivity and competitiveness across the manufacturing and services sectors, accelerating structural transformation through increased household savings, robust infrastructure development, and the adoption of cutting-edge technology. 

“The group explored the role of Artificial Intelligence (AI) as an enabler of cross-sectoral productivity and also discussed the continued scaling of India’s Digital Public Infrastructure,” the statement said. 

The economists participating in the parleys with the PM included, Shankar Acharya, honorary professor at Indian Council for Research on International Economics Relations, Amita Batra, economics professor, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Bank of Baroda chief economist Madan Sabnavis, Janmejaya Sinha, chairman of Boston Consulting Group, and Dr. BR Ambedkar School of Economics University Vice Chancellor N R Bhanumurthy. 

India will remember 2025 as a year when it focused on reforms as a continuous national mission, building on the ground covered over the past 11 years, the PM said in a post on LinkedIn. “We modernised institutions, simplified governance, and strengthened the foundations for long-term, inclusive growth. We moved ahead decisively… with higher ambition, faster execution and deeper transformation.”What made the reforms of 2025 significant was not only their dimension but also their underlying philosophy, he said, noting:“Our government has prioritised collaboration over control and facilitation over regulation in the true spirit of a modern democracy.” 

The reforms, the PM stressed, were designed with empathy, recognising the realities of small businesses, young professionals, farmers, workers and the middle class. “They were shaped by consultation, guided by data and anchored in India’s constitutional values. They add momentum to our decade-long efforts to move away from a control-based economy to one that operates within a framework of trust, keeping the citizen at its core,” he said. 

India, he said, would continue pursuing the reform agenda in the coming years and building a Viksit Bharat would be the polestar of India’s development trajectory. Stating that India had boarded the ‘Reform Express’, he noted that “the primary engine of this Reform Express is India’s demography, our young generation and the indomitable spirit of our people.”

Recounting the reforms undertaken by the Centre through the year, Modi said India had emerged as the centre of global attention due to the innovative zeal of its people. “The reforms have been about enabling citizens to live with dignity, entrepreneurs to innovate with confidence and institutions to function with clarity and trust,” he said. 

Apart from reforms in the goods and services tax (GST), income tax, Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and securities markets, the PM also pointed to the changes made to the labour laws and those affected for the maritime economy and small companies. He also referred to trade deals signed with New Zealand, Oman and Britain, and the free trade agreement with the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) nations.