Small Businesses, Big Budget Surprise: ₹10,000 Cr SME Growth Plan Announced

Union Budget 2026 | Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a major Budget 2026–27 push to strengthen MSMEs and revive 200 legacy industrial clusters through infrastructure and technology upgrades to improve efficiency and competitiveness. She unveiled a ₹10,000 crore SME Growth Fund to create future champions, along with a top-up to the Self-Reliant India Fund to ensure continued risk capital support for micro enterprises. To ease liquidity constraints, the government proposed multiple reforms to enhance the TREADS platform, including mandatory use by CPSEs, credit guarantee support via CGTMSE, integration with GeM, and securitisation of TREADS receivables to deepen secondary markets. The budget also focuses on professional support through certified “corporate mitras” in tier-2 and tier-3 towns, and continued infrastructure development in emerging urban growth centres, backed by instruments like InvITs, REITs, NIIF, and NABFID. 

Union Budget 2026 Live Update