What they want from Budget 2026 <\/em><\/strong>is a clearer path to opportunity:<\/em><\/strong> stronger jobs and skilling outcomes (55.2% place Jobs & Skills among their top reform priorities), supported by reliable infrastructure and digital services that reduce friction in daily life. They also expect the Budget to signal stability, not just growth. Another voice captures the urgency: \u201cIndia\u2019s young population advantage if job creation and skill relevance are not addressed urgently.\u201d<\/p> \u00a0<\/p> If expectations are met, confidence turns into productive action. Many say they would expand or start something new (31%), while others would save or invest more (29.3%), reflecting a shift toward long-term planning over short-term consumption.<\/p> \u00a0 Who are they:<\/strong> Platform and gig-economy workers, delivery partners, drivers, and on-demand service providers. For them, uncertainty is the defining stress. In this segment, uncertain income is the top day-to-day challenge (22.9%), followed by rising prices (18.6%). Health and education costs and high taxes also weigh heavily (both 14.3%). As one respondent put it, \u201cInconsistent orders lead to fluctuating earnings every month,\u201d making it difficult to plan beyond essentials.<\/p> What they want from Budget 2026<\/strong><\/em> is stability that is practical and felt in daily life. Their reform priorities cluster around Digital Services (41.4%), Healthcare (40%), and Utility Services (40%), along with Jobs & Skills (38.6%) and Infrastructure (37.1%). Another respondent captured their struggles plainly: \u201cMy pay varies widely, it\u2019s hard to budget.\u201d<\/p> If expectations are met, confidence turns into productive action. 40% say they would save or invest more, while 21.4% would expand or start something new and 15.7% would improve skills, signalling a push from survival mode toward stability and upward mobility.<\/p> \u00a0 Who are they: <\/strong>City Sustainers (Street vendors) are informal micro-entrepreneurs whose incomes rise and fall with footfall, seasonality, and local operating conditions.<\/p> Their pressure points reflect that fragility: uncertain income (21.4%) leads, while health and education costs (14.3%) and regulatory uncertainty (14.3%) sit close behind. \u201cDaily sales fluctuate, making it hard to plan finances,\u201d is a common theme.<\/p> Their reform asks cluster<\/strong><\/em> around making local markets work better for small sellers. Top priorities include Jobs & Skills (44.3%) and Infrastructure (44.3%), with a strong tilt toward Trade (38.6%), signalling the need for smoother market access, better demand conditions, and fewer frictions in moving goods and doing business. One respondent framed the expectation in practical terms: \u201cAffordability in health can reduce stress and loans can help in emergencies.\u201d<\/p> If the Budget meets expectations, this group shows a balanced \u201cgrowth plus security\u201d response: 28.6% would save or invest more, 27.1% would expand or start a business, and 21.4% would upgrade skills, reflecting both caution and ambition.<\/p> \u00a0 Who are they:<\/strong> Backbone of Urban India (Blue-collar) includes factory, field, and services workers.<\/p> Their challenges show a tight squeeze: uncertain income (24.2%) is highest, followed by rising prices (18.2%) and lack of jobs (15.2%). One respondent summed up the daily reality: \u201cToo many qualified people competing for fewer jobs.\u201d<\/p> Their Budget expectations<\/strong><\/em> are anchored in employability and protection from shocks. Jobs & Skills (66.7%) is the dominant reform priority, far ahead of other areas, followed by Healthcare (43.9%) and Infrastructure (40.9%). The pattern suggests a simple pathway: better skills should convert into better jobs and wage progression, and healthcare should stop becoming a financial setback. \u201cAffordable healthcare options can ease financial stress for families,\u201d captures the risk-management angle.<\/p> If expectations are met, the most common response is financial consolidation: 37.9% say they would save or invest more. 18.2% would upgrade skills, and 18.2% say they would stay committed to India, linking quality-of-life confidence to longer-term personal decisions.<\/p> Union Budget 2-26, Budget Expectations 2026, Primus Partners Budget Expectations Survey, Budget 2026 expectations, Union Budget 2026 India, Business Today Primus Partners survey, budget expectations survey India, urban professionals tax concerns, gig workers income uncertainty, blue-collar workers budget expectations, street vendors budget demands, informal sector budget 2026, jobs and skills India, employment generation budget, digital services for gig workers, healthcare affordability India, infrastructure development India, income security for workers, urban vs rural budget expectations#Primus #Partners #Budget #Expectations #Survey #rich #worry #taxes #poor #income #uncertainty1769810319<\/p> ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Urban professionals worry the most about high taxes while gig workers, street vendors and blue-collar workers in cities are concerned about income uncertainty. Folks in rural India worry about poor infrastructure and lack of jobs.Their ask from Budget 2026 too vary, found a pan India survey of 1,755 individuals conducted by Primus Partners for Business […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2535,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[7394,489,888,7387,7391,7390,7399,7398,4489,7393,7400,1488,7402,7396,7401,7397,2777,7406,5821,7388,7404,7395,3034,2048,3631,7386,7389,7392,7403,7405],"class_list":["post-2534","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-content-marketing","tag-blue-collar-workers-budget-expectations","tag-budget","tag-budget-2026-expectations","tag-budget-expectations-2026","tag-budget-expectations-survey-india","tag-business-today-primus-partners-survey","tag-digital-services-for-gig-workers","tag-employment-generation-budget","tag-expectations","tag-gig-workers-income-uncertainty","tag-healthcare-affordability-india","tag-income","tag-income-security-for-workers","tag-informal-sector-budget-2026","tag-infrastructure-development-india","tag-jobs-and-skills-india","tag-partners","tag-poor","tag-primus","tag-primus-partners-budget-expectations-survey","tag-rich","tag-street-vendors-budget-demands","tag-survey","tag-taxes","tag-uncertainty","tag-union-budget-2-26","tag-union-budget-2026-india","tag-urban-professionals-tax-concerns","tag-urban-vs-rural-budget-expectations","tag-worry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/longzhuplatform.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2534","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/longzhuplatform.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/longzhuplatform.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/longzhuplatform.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/longzhuplatform.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2534"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/longzhuplatform.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2534\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/longzhuplatform.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2535"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/longzhuplatform.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/longzhuplatform.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2534"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/longzhuplatform.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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Urban Lifelines (Gig workers)<\/strong><\/p>
Urban Lifelines (Gig workers) are drivers, delivery partners, and platform workers who keep cities running, but often without predictable income or a safety net.<\/p>
City Sustainers (Street vendors)<\/strong><\/p>
Backbone of Urban India (Blue-collar)<\/strong><\/p>