As India goes into the year 2026, cybersecurity has emerged as a key area of concern. In today’s hyperconnected digital world, cyberattacks have evolved from crude scams to sophisticated threats that target citizens, businesses, and governments. Cybercriminals employ sophisticated as well as advanced techniques such as zero-day exploits, polymorphic attacks, or ransomware-as-a-service model. According to most estimates and reports, one cyberattack occurs every few seconds. The cost of cybercrime globally runs into trillions of dollars on an yearly basis. Thus, cyber risk mitigation has to be a national priority. Recent breaches, together with ransomware that target critical infrastructure, demand robust cybersecurity frameworks that protect infrastructure, data, and citizens. Let’s examine if the Union Budget 2026 does enough to make the cybersecurity posture of the country robust.”As a CISO reviewing India’s Union Budget 2026–27 through a cybersecurity lens, the direction is positive but the ambition remains incremental. The Budget strengthens digital resilience, yet stops short of the decisive leap needed against AI-driven threats, supply-chain risks, and large-scale digital fraud,” says Pravin Kumar, CISO and DPO at a leading financial institution of India

“Budget allocation for Meity and Certin remains flattish with no new initiatives announced,” points out Imran Iraqi, a leading cybersecurity expert at one of India’s largest conglomerates.”

Positive initiatives in the budget

The 2026 budget includes allocations and initiatives aimed at strengthening India’s cyber resilience.

⦁ MeitY funding has risen to ₹21,633 crore, creating a strong base.

⦁ Cybersecurity spend under Digital India increases to ₹790 crore, supporting incident response, threat intelligence, etc.

⦁ CERT-In allocation remains steady at ₹269 crore.

“One more imperative that I see is that since Foreign Cloud Providers are going to get tax haven for 20 years, there would be an increased focus for securing the cloud-led services through MSSPs in India. Currently Indian MSSPs are able to service cloud workloads predominantly for cloud subscriber/ customer from India and with Budget promoting cloud exports it will create greater demands for securing the cloud and maintaining the right Cloud & AI Security Posture Management whilst maneuvering the various data security controls mandated in data privacy and industry-specific regulatory norms,” adds Iraqi.

Key gaps and risks in Union Budget 2026

Despite strengths, several limitations raise questions about whether the provisions are truly enough. Kumar points out the following shortcomings in the budget vis-a-vis cybersecurity.

• Increases are measured, not transformative; expectations around a national cyber resilience framework, scaled skilling programs, dedicated cyber protection funding, and rapid-response mechanisms remain largely unmet.

• Digital fraud losses amounting to ₹34,771 crore in the previous year highlight the lack of large-scale cyber interventions in the financial sector.

• Funding Levels May Be Insufficient: Robust cybersecurity ecosystems require sustained, multi-year funding commitments. This is significantly larger than incremental annual increases.

• Lack of Clear Operational Roadmaps: Budgetary allocations must be paired with execution plans and accountability

• Incident Response and Crisis Management Readiness: Budget 2026 does not address nationwide incident response capability. There is a need for regional hubs and escalation frameworks that can respond to large breaches and attacks in real time.

• Regulation as opposed to Enforcement: Budget provisions should ideally be supported by stronger regulatory enforcement mechanisms. The DPDP framework is a step forward, but harmonizing cybersecurity standards, compliance audits, and penalties across critical sectors requires legislative and institutional reinforcement beyond budget allocations.

Key CISO takeaways

According to Kumar, there are some key takeaways in the Budget with respect to CISOs and other senior cybersecurity professionals.

• The foundation is in place, but outcomes will depend on aggressive execution.

• Priorities must include AI-powered threat hunting, indigenous cryptography, hardened supply chains, and real-time public–private threat intelligence sharing.

• In an intelligence-first threat landscape, speed and scale will define national cyber resilience.>

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