Page 20 - Policy Economic Report - Jan 2026

POLICY AND ECONOMIC REPORT
OIL & GAS MARKET

o To promote environmentally sustainable movement of cargo, the finance minister proposed new
Dedicated Freight Corridors connecting Dankuni in the East, to Surat in the West; b) operationalize
20 new National Waterways (NW) over next 5 years, starting with NW-5 in Odisha to connect
mineral rich areas of Talcher and Angul and industrial centers like Kalinga Nagar to the Ports of
Paradeep and Dhamra. Training Institutes will be set up as Regional Centres of Excellence for
development of the required manpower.

o To promote environmentally sustainable passenger systems, seven High-Speed Rail corridors
between cities will be developed as ‘growth connectors,’ namely i) Mumbai-Pune, ii) Pune-
Hyderabad, iii) Hyderabad-Bengaluru, iv) Hyderabad-Chennai, v) Chennai-Bengaluru, vi) Delhi-
Varanasi, vii) Varanasi-Siliguri.

o To promote India as a hub for medical tourism services, the finance minister proposed a Scheme
to support States in establishing five Regional Medical Hubs, in partnership with the private
sector. These Hubs will serve as integrated healthcare complexes that combine medical,
educational and research facilities. They will have AYUSH Centres, Medical Value Tourism
Facilitation Centers and infrastructure for diagnostics, post-care, and rehabilitation.

o The finance minister proposed to set up a National Institute of Hospitality by upgrading the
existing National Council for Hotel Management and Catering Technology. It will function as a
bridge between academia, industry, and the Government.

o The finance minister proposed Bharat-VISTAAR (Virtually Integrated System to Access Agricultural
Resources), a multilingual AI tool that shall integrate the AgriStack portals and the ICAR package
on agricultural practices with AI systems. This will enhance farm productivity, enable better
decisions for farmers, and reduce risk by providing customized advisory support.

o Building on the success of the Lakhpati Didi Programme, Self-Help Entrepreneur (SHE) Marts will
be set up as community-owned retail outlets within the cluster level federations through
enhanced and innovative financing instruments.

Tax Reforms

o Introduction of a simplified and modernised Income Tax framework, with redesigned rules and
forms to reduce compliance complexity and improve ease of filing.

o Tax holiday till 2047 for foreign companies providing cloud services using data centre
infrastructure in India, aimed at strengthening India’s position as a global data centre and digital
services hub.

o Measures to reduce litigation and improve trust-based tax administration, including
rationalisation of penalties, decriminalisation of minor offences, and integration of assessment
and penalty proceedings.

o Extension and rationalisation of safe harbour provisions, particularly for Information Technology
and IT-enabled services, to provide greater certainty on transfer pricing and tax outcomes.

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