Budget 2026 expectations for education: Boosting research, innovation and higher education in the field of design

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• Budget can boost design education and research for India's growth and innovation
• Design education support promotes inclusive growth and bridges socio-economic gaps.
• Better education access boosts India's workforce and productivity.

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As India powers on toward the ideal of Viksit Bharat, we need a cadre of professionals who can think systemically, adapt quickly and work collaboratively across domains and disciplines to help us face complex situations.

Well-trained designers can do all this and much more.

The upcoming budget presents a promising opportunity to support and advance higher education and research in the field of design; aligning this important sector with our national aspirations.

Bridging the skills-productivity gap

The substantial gap between traditional education outcomes and the skills that the industry desires has been a long-standing challenge for the Indian education ecosystem. Today’s dynamic workplaces demand adaptive professionals who can work seamlessly across domains. Higher education must help develop an ecosystem that moves away from credential-driven toward skills-driven outcomes, focusing on employability, adaptability and problem-solving capacity.

The upcoming budget can help by promoting interdisciplinary fields such as design, along with supportive policy measures for stronger industry-academia engagement, enabling universities to help train a future-ready workforce that can respond creatively to changing economic needs.

Research funding as an economic multiplier

Research, often perceived as limited to scientific work, is a long-term multiplier from an economic viewpoint. Countries that have consistently invested in research and development demonstrate competitive advantages in manufacturing, healthcare, energy and technology, among others. For India, the challenge is twofold: expanding research capacity beyond narrowly-organised conventional fields and a small group of elite institutions while ensuring that research is closely aligned with national priorities.

Budgetary support for applied and practice-based research, particularly in areas such as climate resilience, urbanisation, public systems and affordable technologies, can significantly benefit the industry and society at large. Industry-linked research not just reduces dependence on foreign technologies and intellectual property but also strengthens domestic innovation ecosystems.

Prioritising budget allocation and policy encouragement to research encourages collaboration between universities, industry and government agencies. The Government of India, for example, has done exactly this in the recent past by providing direct fiscal support via the central budget to promote research and scholarship on urban development by providing seed funding to institutes of higher education like SPA, NIT and CEPT. We can (and should) do the same for design.

Empowering design education

Design, a hard-wired human trait, has been central to the human story on this planet. As India marches towards the national aspiration of Viksit Bharat, it needs appropriately designed settlements and allied systems that support well-being, enhancing national development while creating a better quality of life for everyone. This is where design becomes central to India’s story in the 21st century.

Design education can aid inclusive growth by addressing the needs of both urban and rural communities. By equipping students with the tools of empathy, contextual awareness, sustainability, ethical use of technology and cross-disciplinary collaboration, design education can enable them to create innovations that bridge socio-economic divides. By nurturing a generation of socially conscious designers, India can ensure that progress reaches every corner of the country. Supporting design education is therefore an economic necessity and not merely an academic priority.

Expanding access without diluting excellence

Another dimension that deserves attention is access and equity. India’s demographic dividend will materialise only if large sections of its young population can access quality education. Budgetary support for first-generation learners, regional institutions and multilingual education models should be seen as a growth strategy rather than social spending. Expanding access does not dilute excellence; it enlarges the talent pool and strengthens economic resilience.

Financial aid mechanisms, regional capacity-building and inclusive pedagogical models can help bring under-represented communities into the formal economy. From a macro-economic perspective, this translates into higher workforce participation, improved productivity and broader consumption growth.

The Union Budget 2026 has the potential to move the conversation from capacity-building to capability-building. Investing in higher education, research and innovation in the field of design is ultimately an investment in India’s ability to compete, adapt and lead in an uncertain global environment. By treating design education as basic intellectual infrastructure and research as a multiplier, India can lay the foundations for sustainable and inclusive growth over the next several decades.