Nirav Choksi, CEO and Co-Founder of CredAble
“The Economic Survey has pegged India’s FY26 GDP growth between 6.3% and 6.8%. The route to higher productivity lies in creating a win-win economic fabric for all sectors, especially the MSMEs. We’re seeing a positive shift in India’s financial services ecosystem with bank credit to MSMEs surpassing enterprises with 13% growth. RBI’s ULI is bringing about sweeping changes in the MSME credit ecosystem. With its open architecture and plug-and-play model, ULI is improving the discoverability and deliverability of credit to underserved MSMEs.
FinTechs are also playing their part in democratising financial services by accelerating the deployment of technology-enabled financial inclusion and pay-as-you-use financing solutions. While FinTechs are redefining MSME lending with innovative underwriting approaches, products like ULI can extend their reach and cover more lending use cases and categories to remove structural barriers and improve access to working capital financing for MSMEs.”
Shrinivas Rao, FRICS, CEO Vestian
“The Economic Survey 2025 reaffirms the vision of Viksit Bharat 2047, recognizing that this goal cannot be achieved without the contribution of the real estate sector—the second-largest employment generator in the country. The survey highlights the sector’s strong performance in 2024, driven by economic stability and positive market sentiment. Vestian Research data reinforces this trend, with 2024 recording the highest-ever office absorption at 70.7 million sq. ft.
Vimal Nadar, Senior Director & Head, Research at Colliers India
“The economic survey has highlighted the robustness of the Indian economy driven by calibrated fiscal consolidation and stable private consumption. With upsides in the form of domestic investment & manufacturing output growth, the government expects FY26 GDP growth rate to be in the range of 6.3-6.8%. Real estate will continue to play a pivotal role and demand across asset classes is likely to expand into multiple Tier II & III cities and economic corridors as well. All-time high credit deployment with over INR 28 trillion outstanding housing loans as of October 2024, indicates healthy residential activity. Overall, the economic survey has outlined the need for continued infrastructure push, policy reforms and sector specific business enablers in the upcoming budget, which should help in sustaining the real estate growth momentum over the next few years.”
Sahil Agarwal, CEO, Nimbus Group
The Economic Survey underscores the crucial role of the real estate sector in economic growth and projects sustained demand for both housing and office spaces over the long term. Given its significant contribution to GDP and employment, real estate remains one of the key pillars of India’s economic expansion.
The sector has witnessed renewed confidence following the implementation of RERA (Real Estate Regulatory Authority), which has instilled greater transparency and accountability. As a result, both end-users and investors are now more willing to invest in projects developed by RERA-compliant builders, leading to a healthier and more robust market. Over time, we expect transparency and governance in the sector to improve even further, making it even more attractive for investment.
The Economic Survey rightly predicts that housing demand in India will reach 93 million units by 2036, a figure that underscores the enormous growth potential of the sector. Beyond just real estate, this surge in demand will also benefit auxiliary industries, such as construction materials, home décor, finance, and technology, creating a ripple effect across the economy.
However, to fully capitalize on this demand and drive further growth, we urge the government to grant long-pending industry status to the real estate sector. This will allow developers to access easier financing, lower borrowing costs, and incentives, ultimately enabling the sector to meet housing demand more effectively and contribute even more significantly to India’s economic progress.
Vivek Jalan, Partner Tax Connect Advisory Services LLP
The economic survey emphasizes on deregulation and simplification of business procedures as a compulsion rather than as an option in the current day geo-political environment. This can be done by reducing layers of operational conditions to policies to prevent abuse and making them incomprehensible and complicated. Therefore simplification of TDS/TCS in norms in Income Tax, MOOWR/IGCR Scheme in Customs and of course simplification of GST is what seems on the anvil in the budget going forward among other policy changes.
Due to geo-political conditions India’s export is expected to be tepid and India will have to press the levers on domestic consumption as well as manufacturing for growth. However, India’s manufacturing of raw materials, components, parts, etc is far from self-sufficient and hence its dependence on global supply chains create a road block. Much more push needs to be given to manufacturing raw materials, components, parts, etc. Green mobility should be the focus area.