Reactions to the 2026 India Union Budget

There were no big shocks in the Union Budget 2026. Instead, it marked a subtle but important shift in tone. The conversation around artificial intelligence shifted from ambition and possibility to expectation. What should systems deliver now? And where are gaps no longer acceptable?

During this period, Devnagri’s co-founder, Nakul Kundra, was quoted across several national and business publications. His comments appeared in stories published before and after the budget. They often talked about AI, digital infrastructure, and how these systems work in the real world.

There is a clear difference in all of the coverage. India is no longer debating whether AI matters. The focus has moved to whether it actually works in everyday use.

From skilling to outcomes that show up

In the run-up to the budget, many articles focused on AI skilling and workforce readiness. The concern was familiar, such as training numbers look strong, but outcomes on the ground remain uneven.

Nakul's point of view always came back to this divide. Skills are important, but only when systems built on those skills work well. The system has failed if users can't finish a task, give up on a journey halfway through, or need help repeatedly, no matter how advanced the technology behind it is.

In a country with multiple languages and usage contexts, this becomes even more visible. Access alone is not enough. Understanding is what determines whether users move forward or drop off.

AI must hold up when it comes to experience

Post-budget coverage reflected a broader reframing. AI was no longer discussed as a standalone initiative or a future bet. It was treated as a layer running through IT services, cloud platforms, manufacturing, and public-facing digital systems.

With that framing comes an unspoken assumption that these systems are expected to work at scale. Partial journeys, friction-heavy onboarding, and inconsistent experiences are no longer brushed aside as early-stage issues.

That expectation quietly raises the bar. Success is less about launch timelines and more about whether systems behave predictably across users, regions, and languages.

When experience gaps become real risks?

Another recurring theme was experience quality. When onboarding fails at scale, the impact goes beyond usability. It creates operational strain, financial risk, and long-term trust issues.

Fragmentation makes this worse. Different screens saying different things, instructions that change tone midway, and interfaces that switch languages without warning all add to confusion. Most users don’t complain. They simply disengage.

Over time, this kind of silent failure weakens even well-funded digital initiatives. In that sense, clarity is no longer secondary to infrastructure as it is part of it.

Where does Devnagri fit in the conversation?

More people are talking about Devnagri in relation to language-led systems and applied AI because it is now available on more national platforms. Being mentioned in discussions about the 2026 budget puts the corporation in the middle of a broader shift from producing technology to making it work at scale.

More importantly, it reflects a point increasingly echoed across policy and industry, digital transformation only creates value when people understand what they are being asked to do. Systems that scale without comprehension don’t always fail loudly. They fail quietly.

Here’s a roundup of where Devnagri’s leadership shared their views on the Union Budget 2026 across national and industry platforms.

Pre-Budget coverage

Before the Union Budget 2026, several national and business magazines examined what the IT industry wanted from the government, particularly regarding AI training, job outcomes, and readiness to grow. The focus was less on ambition and more on delivery: was India's growing pool of AI expertise turning into useful systems and real jobs?

Coverage prior to the Budget:

Post-Budget coverage

After the Budget was presented, coverage shifted to how those expectations stacked up against policy direction. Articles analysed AI’s positioning across sectors, the role of digital infrastructure, and the implications of the announcements for enterprises and public-facing systems. The conversation moved quickly from what was promised to how effectively it could be executed on the ground.

Coverage after the Budget:

Cracking India’s language barrier with AI

India’s digital systems speak at scale, but often in the wrong language. What happens when AI learns tone, intent, and emotion across Indian languages, and why that shift changes how banks, governments, and citizens

Devnagri Team6 min read

Devnagri AI Launches Speech AI to Power Multilingual Voice Workflows for Enterprises

New capability expands Devnagri’s Sovereign Language Infrastructure with enterprise speech recognition and voice generation for multilingual digital systems.

Devnagri Team6 min read