By Tarun Nazare, Managing Director and Co-Founder, Neokred
In this year’s Budget, announcements around manufacturing, MSMEs and data centres stole the limelight. However, in parallel, through subtle remarks, something important was unfolding beneath the surface: Trust. Following the enforcement of the DPDP law, the budget also points to consumer protection and the urgency of trustworthy and secure digital infrastructures. From Compliance Assistance for MSMEs to tax holidays for foreign cloud providers, everything boils down to the vitality of the data security of its citizens.
However, digital infrastructures have become ubiquitous, and data has become the new currency that underpins today’s businesses. It is leveraged across the value chain, from marketing to operations, customer service to credit underwriting and product development to risk management. The Budget 2026 quietly unfurls a fundamental recalibration that data can no longer circulate freely, be collected opaquely, or be governed inconsistently. Instead, data is emerging as a strategic asset that demands accountability, transparency, and purpose-led stewardship. Gradually, in many ways, data is becoming the lodestar that is extending the promise of Atmanirbhar Bharat.
MSMEs’ looming hustle for compliance
This year’s budget has proposed ₹10,000 crore for the SME Growth Fund to create future Champions. This undeniably signals the scale of opportunity the sector is opening up for the country. And with trust and infrastructure emerging as continuous priorities, the Union government is also moving to create “Corporate Mitras”, accredited para-professionals trained by institutions like the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India and the Institute of Company Secretaries of India to support MSMEs with compliance requirements. This reiterates the government’s focus on reliable digital ecosystems.
However, the question here is, with lean teams and limited resources, how will MSMEs stay audit-ready and digitally compliant in this ever-evolving regulatory landscape?
In addition to the support of ‘Corporate Mitras’, they need enterprise-grade solutions to remain competitive and compliant. Especially with the enforcement of DPDP, the organisations across India have to be transparent about the customer data they collect and its usage in clear layman’s language. For consumers, consent must be explicit, granular, and revocable. However, maintaining these compliance standards manually can be strenuous and stretch already-thin teams even further. Plus, with penalties running as high as ₹250 crore, the stakes are rising. And this is where the consent management solutions become a necessity.
Trust becoming a competitive moat
The Budget speech was also a reminder that India is taking data protection very seriously. Their move to introduce a tax holiday until 2047 for foreign companies providing global cloud services, provided they utilise Indian data centres and local resellers, implies an aggressive ‘Data-in-India’ mandate. These steps underscore the government’s growing emphasis on safeguarding India’s data and the privacy and security of its citizens.
Going forward, especially with the proliferation of AI across sectors in India, data security requirements will be a non-negotiable. With companies making hasty leaps into the AI bandwagon, it is time to take a moment and consider its implications. Both governments and consumers alike are increasingly demanding comprehensive data privacy measures.
The right approach now is to embed solutions that do not keep consumers in the dark, but instead offer flexibility in how they choose to share their data. They should adopt privacy-by-design architectures and pull the plug on fragmented consent practices toward unified, auditable systems that give users genuine control over their data. Businesses should take concrete steps toward easy-to-deploy consent management solutions to track, record, and give consumers control over their data, without bearing the brunt of regulatory complexity.
Balancing business growth with contributions to India’s Data-in-India mandate will be critical. If India can achieve digital scale alongside robust data protection, trust itself could become a competitive advantage in global markets.
A reset for businesses
Budget 2026 makes one thing clear: India’s digital future will be shaped as much by trust as by technology. As data becomes central to every business decision and AI adoption accelerates, organisations that embed privacy, transparency, and compliance into their core will be well-suited to grow. For India, this is an opportunity to build a globally competitive digital economy rooted in accountability. If businesses rise to this challenge, trust will be their strongest growth multiplier.