Budget 2026: Farmers, Women, Infra Top Priorities; AI Agri Tool, IT Reforms Unveiled

• Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a record 12.2 lakh crore rupees for infrastructure development, focusing on roads and hospitals.
• The budget emphasizes increasing farmers' income by promoting high-value crops like coconut, cashew, cocoa, walnuts, and pine nuts.
• A new multilingual AI tool, 'Bharat Vistaar', will provide farmers with agricultural advice, weather info, and new techniques.
• The Blue Revolution gets a boost with 500 new reservoirs and direct links for Fisheries FPOs to startups and women's groups.
• Major IT sector reforms include a uniform 'Safe Harbour' margin of 15.5% for all IT services and a single category for software development, ITES, and contract R&D to reduce tax disputes.

Why It Matters: Budget 2026 prioritizes agriculture modernization, infrastructure, and IT sector reforms for economic growth.