Share your story and shine at JK Monitor!🌟 Welcome to JK Monitor, where every story matters and every achievement is celebrated! We invite you to share the remarkable journey of your life and showcase your accomplishments to the world. Join our exclusive interviews that honor exceptional individuals just like you. NEW DELHI: As expectations build around the Union Budget 2026, leaders across HealthTech, HR Tech, Food & Wellness, and the startup ecosystem are converging on a common theme: India’s next phase of economic growth must be driven by prevention, innovation, decentralisation, and policy stability.
Preventive Healthcare and Indigenous MedTech at the Core
Ashissh Raichura, Founder & CEO of Scanbo, a HealthTech and MedTech company focused on preventive healthcare, emphasised that India’s healthcare economics will remain unsustainable unless prevention becomes central to policy thinking. Currently, healthcare spending is heavily weighted toward late-stage treatment, while early detection and screening remain underutilised.
Raichura called on the government to prioritise digital diagnostics, non-invasive screening tools, and AI-led early detection, supported by strong policy incentives and deeper integration into public healthcare systems. He also underscored the need for robust backing of Made in India medical devices through targeted incentives, reduced GST, and rationalised import duties on critical components. Such measures, he noted, would make advanced diagnostics affordable and scalable, positioning preventive healthcare not just as a public health necessity but as a long-term economic imperative.
Budget 2026 and India’s Global Capability Centre Moment
From the HR Tech and talent solutions space, Anuj Agrawal, Founder & CEO of Zyoin Group, described Budget 2026 as a defining moment for India’s Global Capability Centre (GCC) ecosystem. With over 1,900 GCCs employing more than 2 million professionals, India has evolved beyond being a global back office to becoming a global innovation hub.
Agrawal stressed the urgent need for a Central GCC Policy to address fragmentation across state-level regulations. He also called for bold incentives to expand GCC growth into Tier-2 cities, alongside substantial investment in AI and ML skilling to bridge India’s current 53% talent deficit. Highlighting the rise of Nano GCCs, he urged the introduction of single-window clearances to accelerate their setup. According to Agrawal, the message to global enterprises must be clear: India is no longer just about cost efficiency—it is where global innovation is built.
Food as a Preventive Health Lever
In the food and wellness sector, Ravi Somani, Founder of Qoot Food, pointed out that India’s shift towards healthier eating is no longer aspirational but structural. Consumers are increasingly choosing clean-label, functional, and nutritionally balanced foods, yet policy frameworks have not fully caught up with this transformation.
Somani expressed hope that the upcoming Budget would introduce targeted incentives for clean-label food innovation, clearer and more consistent regulations around health and nutrition claims, and stronger support for domestic food processing startups. He emphasised the need to simplify compliance for health-focused brands, encourage R&D in nutrition science, and strengthen food processing infrastructure.
According to Somani, encouraging nutrition-focused brands goes beyond expanding consumer choice—it directly contributes to reducing long-term lifestyle-related health risks and, in turn, lowers the burden on India’s healthcare system. A Budget that recognises food as a preventive healthcare lever, rather than merely a consumption category, could help build a healthier and more sustainable economy.
Policy Stability to Strengthen Entrepreneurship
Adding a broader entrepreneurial perspective, Soumik Bandyopadhyay, Founder & Director of Soumik Bandyopadhyay Advisors Pvt. Ltd., highlighted that for entrepreneurs building long-term businesses, policy stability outweighs short-term incentives. He urged the government to reinforce ease of doing business through predictable taxation, simplified compliance, and smoother access to growth capital, particularly for mid-sized and scaling enterprises.
Bandyopadhyay noted that frequent regulatory changes create uncertainty, diverting founders’ attention away from innovation and execution. A stable, confidence-driven policy environment, he said, would enable entrepreneurs to invest, expand, and generate employment without constant regulatory recalibration. He added that India’s startup ecosystem will thrive when policy frameworks prioritise consistency, transparency, and long-term thinking.
A Unified Call for Sustainable Growth
Together, these voices reflect a unified industry expectation from Budget 2026: a shift towards prevention-first healthcare, AI-led innovation, decentralised growth, nutrition-driven public health, and policy stability. As India positions itself for long-term economic resilience, industry leaders believe that aligning policy with these priorities will be critical to building a healthier population, a stronger innovation ecosystem, and a more sustainable growth story.