Economy

Union Minister for Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw has said that India is on its way to becoming self-reliant in mobile manufacturing, with complete domestic production of mobile phone components expected within two years. His statement reflects a broader shift in India’s electronics strategy: the focus is now moving from assembling finished devices to manufacturing the critical parts that give real depth to the industry.

This is a striking number because India already has one of the world’s largest technology talent pools. The country has millions of software engineers, a huge start-up base, deep IT services capacity, a fast-growing SaaS sector and a young population comfortable with digital tools. When a coding-focused AI system sees such rapid adoption in India, it reflects more than curiosity. It shows that developers and digital workers are beginning to treat AI as a practical execution layer.

BCG’s 2026 Global Wealth Report describes this as part of a wider “reordering” of global wealth. Emerging markets are expected to generate roughly 10% of global financial wealth growth by 2030, adding about US$12 trillion in financial wealth and more than one million new dollar millionaires. India alone is expected to contribute more than US$2 trillion to this expansion, making it one of the standout markets in the emerging-world wealth cycle.

PM SVANidhi is a Central Sector Scheme jointly implemented by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs and the Department of Financial Services. The scheme provides collateral-free working capital loans to street vendors, helping them restart, stabilise and expand their small businesses. The government has now approved restructuring and extension of the scheme, with the lending period extended up to March 2030.

This development shows how India’s biological wealth is gradually being integrated into a structured conservation-linked economic model. The ABS mechanism ensures that industries using biological resources and associated traditional knowledge contribute back to the communities, farmers, Biodiversity Management Committees and knowledge holders connected to those resources.

This rise is significant because data centres are no longer back-end technology assets hidden behind the digital economy. They are now the physical backbone of artificial intelligence, cloud platforms, digital payments, online education, telemedicine, streaming, gaming, cybersecurity, government platforms, enterprise software and real-time analytics. Every AI query, video call, payment transaction, hospital record, logistics update and digital document depends on servers, power systems, cooling infrastructure, fibre connectivity and secure facilities working continuously in the background.

This improvement matters because India’s aviation sector is moving through a period of rapid expansion. Domestic passenger traffic, which averaged below 2 lakh passengers per day in 2014, has crossed the 5-lakh daily mark on several occasions in recent years. With annual airport passenger traffic projected to reach nearly 50 crore by 2030 and about 100 crore by 2040, digital systems such as Digi Yatra are becoming essential for managing future airport congestion and passenger flow.

In FY26, India exported 344.2 thousand tonnes of sweet biscuits, showing the rising acceptance of Indian processed food products across global markets. This is more than a food export statistic. It reflects the ability of Indian manufacturers to serve mass consumer markets with affordable, shelf-stable and familiar products that travel well across geographies.

The post-Covid recovery of small businesses has moved through three clear stages. The first was survival, when firms tried to manage lockdown damage, weak cash flows and broken supply chains. The second was repair, when demand returned and businesses rebuilt working capital. The third stage, now visible in 2025, is expansion. Many enterprises are investing again, hiring cautiously, adopting digital tools and preparing for higher demand in 2026. The survey’s finding that 87% of Indian small businesses expect to grow in 2026 shows that confidence has moved beyond short-term recovery and entered a forward-looking phase.