Plan Encompasses Toy Hubs, Super Foods, and AI
New Delhi: For the first time, the government has informed in the Budget 2025 that India will be investing in new age sectors such as toy hubs, the NextGen Powerhouse, global super food like making Makhana and artificial intelligence (AI) in the next fiscal year and years to come as well.
Envisaging a mission to become a global manufacturing power hub, the government has focussed on clusters, skills and sustainable designs in toy hubs, while there is a focus on cutting age research and empowering the Next Generations in AI space. The move of the government aims to create more jobs, export growth and to boost Make-in-India brands.
Apart from funding AI projects in various fields with a capital outlay of Rs 500 crore in the budget, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has also earmarked an allocation of Rs 2,500 crore in a new scheme for plug-and-play industrial parks. Besides, the government also plans to spend on the NextGen Powerhouse sector, which is leading the transition towards renewable energy sources like solar and wind power, often focusing on innovative technologies and large-scale projects.
As far as plug-and-play projects are concerned, the new scheme is formulated to facilitate development of investment-ready plug and play industrial parks with complete infrastructure. The minister has significantly increased the budgetary allocation for the department for promotion of industry and internal trade (DPIIT), which deals with issues like foreign direct investment policy, startups and promoting manufacturing.
According to the Budget papers, the allocation for the department has been increased by 64 per cent to Rs 13,145.06 crore for 2025-26 from the revised estimate of Rs 8,011 crore in 2024-25. “The segments where allocations were increased for the next fiscal include intellectual property related works (Rs 321.34 crore), footwear, leather and accessories development programme (Rs 350 crore), national industrial corridor development and implementation trust (Rs 2,500 crore), fund of funds 2.0 (Rs 2,000 crore), and PLI for white goods (Rs 444.54 crore),” the paper noted.
The minister has also announced a national manufacturing mission, a new scheme for providing policy support, execution of roadmaps, governance and monitoring framework for the manufacturing sector to promote Make-in-India. Funds for the industrial development of UT of Jammu and Kashmir has also been increased to Rs 300 crore for 2025-26.
