The core theme of the 2025 Budget is a commitment to realizing the goal of Viksit Bharat, or Developed India, through comprehensive and inclusive growth. This strategy emphasizes transforming the nation into a global manufacturing powerhouse by concentrating on key pillars: poverty elimination, universal access to quality education and healthcare, a highly skilled workforce, increased female labor participation, and robust job creation.

The ‘Make in India’ Initiative Takes Center Stage

Central to the Budget’s economic policy is the vigorous push to expand the ‘Make in India’ initiative. This aims to bolster the country’s manufacturing capacity, which is viewed as the primary driver for creating widespread employment opportunities and propelling the nation toward its developed status.

A significant measure announced is the establishment of the National Manufacturing Mission. This new body is designed to provide comprehensive support—including policy guidance, execution roadmaps, governance, and monitoring frameworks—to large, medium, and small industries. A special focus of the Mission will be the development of an ecosystem for clean technologies, such as the local manufacturing of solar cells, EV batteries, and high-voltage transmission equipment.

The government underscored its commitment by allocating an estimated ₹33,000 crores toward incentive schemes across strategic sectors like electronics, Electric Vehicles (EVs), semi-conductors, telecom, and pharmaceuticals. Furthermore, a proposed presumptive taxation regime for non-residents offering technology and support services to Indian electronics manufacturers aims to attract global investment by easing the tax burden.

Targeted Sector Development for Job Creation

The Budget outlines specific support for sectors identified as having high potential for generating employment and boosting exports:

• Footwear and Leather: A focused product scheme is set to revitalize this traditional, job-intensive sector. The goal is to enhance productivity, quality, and global competitiveness, with an ambitious target to facilitate employment for 2.2 million people, achieve a turnover of ₹4 lakh crore, and generate over ₹1.1 lakh crore in exports.
• Toys: Building on the National Action Plan for Toys, a dedicated scheme will be implemented to nurture manufacturing clusters and enhance local skills. The objective is to position India as a global hub for high-quality, sustainable toy manufacturing.
• Critical Minerals: Plans are in place to increase domestic mining of critical minerals to reduce supply chain vulnerability, especially concerning neighboring countries. This secures essential raw materials for the local production of electronics, EVs, and renewable energy equipment, simultaneously creating more jobs for the youth.

Empowering MSMEs and New Entrepreneurs

Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) are recognized as crucial development engines. Reforms include reclassifying MSMEs with higher investment and turnover thresholds, granting them better access to financial incentives, funding, and general support to foster innovation.

To promote inclusivity and entrepreneurship, a new scheme will be launched to support first-time entrepreneurs from women, Scheduled Castes, and Scheduled Tribes. This scheme plans to provide term loans up to ₹2 crore over the next five years, targeting 5 lakh new business owners, thereby directly linking entrepreneurship to job creation.