Healthcare & Pharma
Mytri Macherla, Vice President & Sector Head – Corporate Ratings, ICRA Ltd
“The upcoming budget is likely to focus on preventive healthcare given the significant rise in non-communicable and lifestyle diseases in the country. To boost investments in the sector, tax incentives for private sector investments in modernising medical facilities, especially in tier-2 and tier-3 cities and developing greenfield hospitals in rural areas will be a welcome step. Further, given the low doctors-to-people and nurses-to-people ratio, increased allocation towards training medical personnel would be highly beneficial.
The pharma sector seeks rationalisation of GST rates on key raw materials to address the inverted duty structure, restoration of tax incentives on R&D spend, and expansion of PLI schemes to strengthen API self-reliance. Increased public healthcare spending and targeted incentives for biopharma innovation are critical to sustain growth.”
Cement
Maitri Vira, Assistant Vice President & Sector Head, ICRA Ltd
“The likely sustained focus on infrastructure development, rural economy, and affordable housing in the upcoming Union Budget FY2027 is expected to augur well for the cement sector and ICRA projects 6–7% cement demand growth in FY2027. Currently, rural housing and infrastructure together account for 50–55% of cement consumption, underscoring their importance to the sector. Increased Government allocations towards roads, railways, metro projects, and urban infrastructure should translate into healthy volume visibility for cement manufacturers. While the full impact of GST rate rationalisation remains to be seen, sustained infrastructure spending and policy stability are expected to provide earnings visibility for cement companies.”
Railways
Suprio Banerjee, Vice President & Co-Group Head, ICRA Ltd
“ICRA anticipates a range-bound increase in Railways’ budgetary allocation for FY2026–27, given the trend seen over the past two years (~5% YoY growth in FY2025 and FY2026BE to reach Rs. 2.65 lakh crore, including EBR of Rs. 10,000 crore). With electrification nearly complete, focus will remain on decongestion through capacity augmentation—new routes, gauge conversion, track doubling, and dedicated freight corridors. Infrastructure modernisation, including rolling stock upgrades and station redevelopment, alongside safety enhancements, will remain critical. Within capacity expansion, economic corridors (e.g. ports and mineral logistics) coupled with accelerated deployment of Kavach 4.0 and advanced signalling across the network, are expected to dominate both budgetary priorities and execution strategies.”
