Many leaders of India Inc hailed Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s Budget as one that would boost consumption and spur growth. Some, like Harsh Goenka, did it with memes and videos, too.

Here’s a quick compilation of first reactions from India’s business leaders.

Harsh Goenka channels his ‘inner Shakespeare’

The day before finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the Union Budget 2025-26, the chairman of RPG Enterprises Harsh Goenka made a sarcastic remark on X.

“Ah, Budget Eve today! Tomorrow, we businessmen shall don the garb of economists and channel our inner Shakespeare—hailing it as visionary, bold, and a masterstroke! Aye, for most of us it is ‘much ado about nothing’ but shall hail it as ‘midsummer’s night dream’,” he wrote.

After Sitharaman reached Lok Sabha on Saturday, Goenka uploaded a video of a man performing aarti on the photo of finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman with a bundle of lit incense sticks. “Meanwhile, all of us #budgetday”, he captioned the post on X.

Following the presentation of the Union Budget 2025-26, Goenka shared a KBC meme which has Amitabh Bachchan asking: ‘Kya karenge aap itni dhanrashi ka? [What will you do with so much money?]’ Goenka captioned the post: ‘FM to middle class and Bihar!’

By "putting money in the hands of middle class," Goenka later said Union Budget 2025-26 sought to "institute structural reforms".

"Just like the men in blue, FM Sitharaman has announced a Champions budget that Deep(ly) Seeks to institute structural reforms, Trumps consumption woes, putting money in the hands of middle class. India does a 'shahi snan', cleansing itself from structural issues and transforming towards a truly Viksit Bharat," Goenka said taking a jab at DeepSeek [AI model from China] and US President Donald Trump.

Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw: Budget is ‘reassuring’

The executive chairperson of Biocon Limited found the Union Budget 2025-26 “reassuring”.

Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw said she had hoped “research-linked incentives” would “find a mention” in Sitharaman’s Budget address. “We need budgetary allocation for mission mode AI Quantum Cell & Gene Therapy Synthetic Biology & Smart Medtech,” she wrote on X as Sitharman entered the Lok Sabha.

“Hope Budget evokes taarif pe taarif @nsitharaman,” the billionaire entrepreneur had added.

“The Union Budget for FY25-26 is reassuring, as it instils confidence that India is investing in the right areas to drive stable and inclusive economic growth,” Mazumdar-Shaw wrote after the Budget address ended.

Harsha Vardhan Agarwal: Income-tax rejig ‘very big announcement’

Ficci [ Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry] India president Harsha Vardhan Agarwal described the Union Budget 2025-26 as "good" and “progressive”.

“Overall, we welcome the Budget. We believe it’s a very good budget, it ticks all the boxes. It is in continuation to what the government’s vision has been towards Visit Bharat and what they have presented in the last few budgets,” Agarwal was quoted as saying.

He lauded the “no income tax till Rs 12 lakh” move, saying it would improve consumer spending.

“The focus on capex [capital expenditure] has been kept. It’s an inclusive budget. A lot of things have been announced for agriculture, farming [and] for women. Apart from that, they have also focused on strengthening Make in India. Most importantly, the announcement that till 12 lakhs there will be no tax rate – I think that’s a very big announcement because that has the potential to improve the consumption, where we have seen some kind of slowdown. Overall, it’s a progressive Budget,” he added.

Ajay Singh: New income-tax bill will reduce litigation, disputes

SpiceJet CEO Ajay Singh looked forward to the introduction of the new income tax bill. He hoped it would be a simpler bill leading to less litigation and fewer disputes.

“The finance minister has said that this bill will be half the size of the previous bill. And we expect fully that not only the size of this bill will be significantly smaller, it will also be a much simpler bill, which will lead to less litigation and fewer disputes,” Singh told PTI.

Speaking of travel and tourism, Singh praised the Udan scheme.

“I think the finance minister also spoke about extending amnesty aims, settlements and so on and so forth. One thing that I must mention as well is that on travel and tourism, the Udan scheme, of course, as we all know, has been one of the most successful schemes of the government of India under Prime Minister Modi,” Singh concluded.

CII president Sanjiv Puri: Relief to middle class very welcome

CII president Sanjiv Puri declared that the Union Budget 2025-26 would boost consumption, investment and employment.

"It's [no income tax till rs 12 lakh annually] a very welcome step, this is something that CII had also been suggesting. Given that the consumption is soft and 60 per cent of the economy is consumption, relief to the middle class is very welcome,” Puri said.

“It will boost consumption, and therefore, investment and employment. It will contribute towards setting a virtual cycle in the economy, and overall, I would also say that it is a very good budget, very fine budget,” Puri said.

‘It builds on the strategies that have been adopted in earlier budgets, focussing on inclusive and sustainable growth,” he added.

Vipul Jain of CK Birla Hospitals lauds focus on the health

Vipul Jain, CEO of CK Birla Hospitals endorsed the government’s exemption on 36 lifesaving drugs.

“The Government of India’s focus on the healthcare sector in the Union Budget 2025-26 presents significant opportunities for advancing medical infrastructure and patient care,” said Jain.

“We strongly support the government's exemption on 36 lifesaving drugs and further concessional customs duty of 5 per cent on 6 life-saving medicines. This will make treatment more affordable to the public,” he added.

“Further development of daycare cancer centres in all district hospitals will strongly help cancer patients. A strong push towards healthcare innovation, medical research, and digital health transformation reflects a forward-thinking approach aimed at enhancing accessibility, affordability, and quality of healthcare services across the nation. As India moves towards achieving universal health care access, world-class medical infrastructure will play a vital role in attracting global collaborations. Further ease in visa grants will foster medical tourism in the country - a huge step to bolster the healthcare industry in India. At CK Birla Hospitals, we remain committed to leveraging these opportunities to provide state-of-the-art medical care and contribute to the nation’s healthcare progress.”

Vijay Shekhar Sharma

The founder of Paytm shared a tweet by the Union Ministry of Finance.

He lauded the ‘zero income tax till Rs 12 lakh’ move with clapping hands emojis on X.