Economic Survey 2025-26

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman tabled the Economic Survey 2025-26 in Parliament on 29 January 2026, two days before she presented the Union Budget 2026-27. Its First Advance Estimates put FY26 real GDP growth at 7.4% and GVA growth at 7.3%, keeping India the world's fastest-growing large economy for a fourth straight year, and project FY27 growth in a 6.8-7.2% band. Beyond the numbers, its preface makes a pointed argument: government needs to behave like a risk-taking, experimenting state rather than a purely rule-bound one, and India's external strategy should graduate from swadeshi-style self-reliance to becoming an indispensable link in global supply chains. Chapters on trade, manufacturing, jobs and welfare build on that theme, and its fiscal chapter effectively previews the consolidation math the Budget formalised days later.