The Ideas Page: Balancing prudence and ambition as old order gives way to the new 11 MONDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2026 JourNalISm of CouragE AHMEDABAD, LATE CITY, 22 PAGES 9 New Delhi, February 1 USPRESIDENTDonaldTrump hasclaimedIndiawillpurchase crude oil from Venezuela instead of Iran, and that the deal or the “concept of the deal” to allow this is in place. While there was no official response to Trump’s comments, sources said that the decision to buy oil is based on market dynamics — that has beenthegovernment’sposition »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 CLOSING CHANGE LEVEL (%) 1/2/2026 80,722 -1.9 1/2/2025 77,505 0 22/7/2024 80,429 -0.1 1/2/2024 71,645 -0.1 1/2/2023 59,708 0.3 1/2/2022 58,862 1.5 1/2/2021 48,600 5 1/2/2020 39,735 -2.4 PAgE 18 New Delhi, February 1 THE FIVE southern states of Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Tamil Naduwillseeanincreaseintheir allocationfromthedivisiblepool oftaxes,asrecommendedbythe 16thFinanceCommission,while the five Hindi heartland states ruled by the BJP and its allies — Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan — will see a significant lIncreaseinshare STATE Karnataka Kerala Andhra Pradesh Telangana Tamil Nadu IN A major boost for connectivity,FinanceMinisterNirmalaSitharaman on Sunday announced seven high-speed rail corridorsthatwillbedeveloped as“growthconnectors”.Shealso announced a new dedicated freight corridor connecting DankuniinWestBengaltoSurat inGujarat,and“rareearthcorridors” in mineral-rich states “to CM: SUrAt to BENgAL frEIght CorrIdor A MAStErStrokE PAgE 3 promotemining,processing,research and manufacturing”. “For an environmentally sustainable system, we will developsevenhigh-speedrailcor- MACRO ridors between cities as growth connectors, namely MumbaiPune, Pune-Hyderabad, Hyderabad-Bengaluru, HyderabadChennai, Chennai-Bengaluru, Delhi-Varanasi, and VaranasiSiliguri,”Sitharamansaidinher Budget speech. India is currently developing its first high-speed rail corridor, the bullet train project, between Mumbai and Ahmedabad. The first stretch, »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 15th FC SHARE IN % 3.647 1.925 4.047 2.102 4.079 16th FC SHARE IN % 4.131 2.382 4.217 2.174 4.097 CHANGE IN Rs cr* 7,387.1 6,975 2,594.6 1,098.9 274.7 »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 pagES 5-16 MARKETS IN BID TO BOOST FDI, FPI INFLOW, INvESTMENT CAP RAISED FOR ‘PROI’ INFRASTRUCTURE CENTRE CONTINUES THRUST ON CAPEX, FY27 TARGET FIXED AT Rs 12.22 LAKH CR NEW ECONOMY ISM 2.0, FOCUS SHIFTS TO SUPPLY CHAINS, IP AND EqUIPMENT Rs 5,000 CR EACH FOR 7 CITY ECONOMIC REGIONS FOREIGN FIRMS TO GET TAx HOLIDAY FOR DATA CENTRES ExPLAINED AFTER BIDS TO BOOST CONSUMPTION, FOCUS BACK ON SUPPLY SIDE *AS PER DIvISIBLE POOL OF ₹15.26 LAKH CRORE FOR THE FISCAL YEAR 2026-27 decline. Southern states have been demandingahighersharefrom l East-West Freight Corridor the Finance Commission, citingtheirbetterperformanceon »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 TheGrowthCorridors l High-Speed Rail Corridors Dedicated freight corridor to connect Dankuni in Bengal to Surat in Gujarat; rare earth corridors to boost mining: FM GUjARAT INSIDE Higher tax share for south states, Hindi heartland states see dip Harikishan Sharma New Delhi, February 1 MINISTER OF ENvIRONMENT, FORESTS AND CLIMATE CHANGE Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman before presenting the Union Budget, Sunday. TASHI TOBGYAL Corridor to future: High-speed rail, freight, one for rare earths Dheeraj Mishra ‘If any doubts have arisen regarding the definition of Aravallis, I welcome the formation of a committee’ BHUPENDER YADAV DEC-25 NOv-25 SEP-25 OCT-25 JUL-25 AUG-25 JUN-25 APR-25 MAY-25 FEB-25 MAR-25 JAN-25 DEC-24 NOv-24 INDIA’S STOCK markets slumped 2% Sunday as Budget 2026-27 proposed a hike in Securities Transaction Tax (STT) forfuturesandoptions(F&O)in anattempttofurthercurbwhat government officials called speculative trading. With the absenceofanyimmediatepositive triggers also dampening sentiment, the 30-stock BSE l Budgetdayfall BUDGET DAY is the global market leader in the aviation sector, and is one of the largest exporters of nuclear reactor components. Forthedomesticsector, Sitharaman announced a host of measures, particularly in the textile sector, to increase productivity, including capital support for textile machinery in clusters and a targeted schemetoboosttheavailability of input items — a longstanding challenge. E. 3 0 New Delhi, February 1 Shubhajit Roy & Sukalp Sharma »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 6 Akash Mandal & Siddharth Upasani U.S. President Donald Trump aboard Air Force One, Sunday. PTI some others hit by US tariffs, and skilling schemes to tackle the unemployment problem. All these will take time to play out and add more muscle to the economy. Moreover, a lot dependsoneffectiveexecution of the many schemes and programmes.TheBudgetprobably recognises this, and it shows only a 10 per cent GDP growth NOTE: DATA FOR SINGLE STOCK AND INDEX FUTURES AND OPTIONS SOURCE: WORLD FEDERATION OF EXCHANGES 12 By EP UNNY THE UNION Budget 2026-27 hasaccommodatedseveralUSfocussed demands raised during ongoing trade negotiations while upping support for the most tariff-vulnerable sectors, such as textile, footwear and marine products. The aim is to prepare them for diversificationinthefaceof50percentUS tariffs. While the US trade deal remains elusive, other markets are set to open up following implementation of trade deals, particularly the UK and the EU. In her Budget speech, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharamanannounced a tax holiday until 2047 to any foreign company that provides cloud services to customers globally by using data centre services from India, a move that directly benefits top Americancompaniesinexpanding their foothold in India. The Budget has also proposed the elimination of duty on aircraft components and nucleargeneration equipment. The US lHowF&Otradingvolumeshaveslumped SEP-24 Trumpsays Indiawillbuy Venezuelaoil, newwindow afterIran,Russia Business as Usual New Delhi, February 1 Transaction tax hiked to curb ‘speculation’ in F&O, but its volumes were already down OCT-24 »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Ravi Dutta Mishra & Soumyarendra Barik SENSEx FALLS 1.9% JUL-24 WITH JUST days to go for the men’s T20 World Cup, the Pakistan government on Sunday directed its team not to play againstIndiainthegroup-stage fixtureinColomboonFebruary 15, even as it cleared its participation in the tournament. “The government of Pakistan grants approval to the Pakistancricketteamtoparticipate in the ICC World T20 2026. However, the Pakistan cricket team shall not take the field in the match scheduled on 15th February against India,” the Pakistan government said in a statement. This came just hours before the team was set to fly to Sri Lanka, where they will be based for the duration of the tournament which begins on February 7. While the Pakistan Cricket BUdgEt MovES forwArd wIth fUtUrE AS foCUS BUt dUCkS kEy rEforMS PAgE 10 IN THE face of global headwinds, Finance Minister NirmalaSitharamanhaschosento stay the course, take a string of measurestoshoreupmanufacturing, and continue to do the heavyliftingoncoreinfrastructure spending, indicating continued sub-optimal support from the private sector. The Budget may be lacking on ambitious decisions in the second year of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s third term in office but Sitharaman tries to make up for this by actions such as modest fund allocations to some industries, customs duty cuts on inputs for AUG-24 Chennai, Mumbai, Feb 1 EDITORIAL PAGE New Delhi, February 1 JUN-24 Venkata Krishna B & Devendra Pandey Aanchal Magazine & Anil Sasi APR-24 Paktoboycott T20match againstIndia, ICCwarnsof ‘implications’ Trump tariff shadow: Budget addresses US demands, backs vulnerable sectors Bets on new economy, manufacturing, but no push for foreign capital MAY-24 TRACk THIS AND MORE ON WWW.INDIANExPRESS.COM In headwinds, Budget stays the course, batters markets with tax FEB-24 crossing in Rafah is expected to reopen for Palestinians after almost two years. The Israeli military said the border crossing with Egypt will reopen for Gaza residents on foot only. MAR-24 lGAZA’S MAIN BORDER CHARTS CLEAR ROADMAP TOWARDS VIKSIT BHARAT BY 2047: PRIME MINISTER NARENDRA MODI CONTRACTS TRADED IN BILLION Happening today ₹5.00 l www.indianexpress.com EAST COAST INDUSTRIAL CORRIDOR in Bihar, Bengal, Odisha, Jharkhand, Andhra Delhi Varanasi Jharkhand Bihar Surat Mumbai Odisha Bengaluru Chennai Kerala Tamil Nadu New Delhi, February 1 West Bengal Hyderabad Pune Andhra Pradesh Capital outlay increased by 22% Amrita Nayak Dutta Siliguri Dankuni In first Budget after Operation Sindoor, 15% hike for defence RARE EARTH CORRIDOR: Odisha, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu 20 new National Waterways connecting mineral rich areas, industrial centres and ports Ahmedabad IN THE first Budget after OperationSindoor,FinanceMinister Nirmala Sitharaman on Sunday announced a 15 per cent hike in the overall defence budget for 2026-2027, raising it to Rs 7.85 lakh crore, including a 22 per cent increase in the capital outlay for modernisation of the Armed Forces. According to a Ministry of Defence (MoD) statement, the defence budget accounts for 14.67 per cent of the govern- ment’stotalexpenditure,andis the highest allocation among the ministries. Ofthetotalallocation,Rs2.19 lakh crore has been earmarked fortheArmedForces’capitalexpenditure.Thislargelyincludes purchase of new weapons, aircraft, warships and other military hardware. In comparison, the capital outlay for 2025-26 was Rs 1.8 lakh crore. Of the total capital outlay, Rs63,733crorehasbeensetaside foraircraftandaeroengines—a big jump from Rs 48,614 crore »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2