Govt To Launch AI Tool For Farm Advisory
SUMMARY
Called Bharat VISTAAR, the tool will look to enhance farm productivity, enable better decisions for farmers and reduce risk by providing customised advisory
The FM also announced a “high level” education-to-employment and enterprise standing committee to suggest measures to upskill engineers in AI and emerging technologies
Other key announcements in the Budget 2026 included a proposed tax holiday to foreign companies that provide cloud services and an INR 10,000 Cr fund for SMEs
In her Budget 2026 speech earlier today, finance minister (FM) Nirmala Sitharaman proposed a multilingual AI tool to offer customised advisory to farmers.
The minister said that the tool, Bharat VISTAAR, will enhance farm productivity, enable better decisions for farmers and reduce risk by providing customised advisory. She added that the proposed platform will also deploy AI tools on India’s Agri Stack portals.
“I propose to launch Bharat VISTAAR, a multilingual AI tool that shall integrate the Agri Stack 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 customised advisory,” said FM Sitharaman.
Calling cutting-edge technologies, including AI applications, as force multipliers for better governance, she also announced a “high level” education-to-employment and enterprise standing committee.
The proposed panel will suggest specific measures for embedding AI in the education curriculum from the school level and upskilling technology professionals and engineers in AI and emerging technologies. The standing committee will also recommend measures for AI-enabled matching of workers, jobs and training opportunities.
Other key announcements in the Union Budget 2026 included a proposed tax holiday to foreign companies that provide cloud services globally using data centre services from India until 2047. However, the sops will be contingent on these services being routed through an Indian reseller entity.
In addition, the Budget also announced a common safe harbour margin of 15.5% for services such as software development, knowledge outsourcing, contract R&D and others. The FM also proposed increasing the threshold for availing the safe harbour to INR 2,000 Cr from INR 300 Cr currently.
The annual economic blueprint also proposed the launch of an INR 10,000 Cr fund to offer equity support for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to create “champions of tomorrow”.
In her speech, FM Sitharaman introduced a new scheme, called Biopharma Shakti, with an outlay of INR 10,000 Cr over the next five years to boost research, manufacturing, and innovation in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical sector.
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