While commentators across news channels and finance desks scramble to decipher what the Union Budget 2025-26 holds for the “common man”, it’s equally important to pause and ask a simpler, harder question: what was conspicuously absent from this budget for the poll-bound state of Assam? Not a single major announcement of strategic significance was teased out specifically for Assam, and, beyond a few broad nods to the North-Eastern region, the budget largely ignored the state’s developmental imperatives in toto.
Invoking the three Kartavyas on Magha Purnima, the Finance Minister spoke of growth, inclusion and equal access to opportunity under the promise of Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas-yet the Budget’s silence on Assam suggests that the entire East was once again left outside this imagination.
One is left wondering whether the Centre believes the incumbent leadership’s loud positions on illegal immigration and the Uniform Civil Code are adequate for its potential victory in the poll-bound state. Have slogans and signalling done enough that there was no need to back the state with serious projects or fiscal commitment, not just for Assam, but for the entire East?
The Finance Minister’s speech dwelt on national priorities and headline schemes, but on the ground in Assam, which will see elections soon, there was no big ticket, transformative allocation that could genuinely move the needle on growth or regional convergence. That omission merits some reflection.
A Meagre Allocation For An Entire Region
The budget documents show that the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER) was allocated ₹6,812 crore, barely 0.1% of ₹54.1 lakh crore total central expenditure, and a modest rise from previous years. Even if this constitutes some increase from prior years, the scale is infinitesimal compared with what “acting east” rhetoric would demand, especially since the 2023 Union Budget had a whopping 51 projects dedicated to the region.
Buddhist Circuits, Purvodaya & Tourism: Words More Than Money?
The Finance Minister did mention initiatives under the Purvodaya (East Coast Industrial Corridor) and a Scheme for Development of Buddhist Circuits covering North-Eastern states including Assam. These are welcome as conceptual frameworks and cultural tourism enablers, but they are not major capital infusions or industrial anchors that would reshape Assam’s growth landscape. They sound promising in speeches but require substantial capital outlays and clear project roadmaps to be genuinely impactful.
Rather than a discretionary gift to the North East, initiatives like Buddhist Circuits and Purvodaya appear as expected deliverables given longstanding national connectivity goals, including linkage with ASEAN markets, and not the bold, region-centred commitments that would move the economic needle right away.
Urea Plant Announcement-A Reprise
One of the few specific mentions for Assam in the budget narrative was the setting up of a new urea plant at Namrup with an annual capacity of 12.7 lakh metric tonnes. Yet this announcement, important as it is for agricultural self-reliance, had already been flagged last year.
In addition to these announcements, the budget did include setting up a NIMHANS-2 in the north and upgradation of mental health institutes in Ranchi and Tezpur. That means Assam will see an upgrade to the Lokopriya Gopinath Bordoloi Regional Institute of Mental Health campus. This is certainly a positive development, particularly in the context of rising mental health challenges and the need for specialised health infrastructure in the North East.
Structural Economic Lag In Assam
The 2025 Economic Survey paints a clear picture of regional inequality in India’s economy. Services, the engine of modern growth, have expanded sharply nationwide, but Assam’s share of services in its Gross State Value Added (GSVA) fell from 46.5 per cent to 34.3 per cent over the past decade. This decline signifies that the state is not keeping pace with the structural shift towards services-led development, unlike southern and western states.
No Major Flood Assistance In The Union Budget
Assam remains annually ravaged by floods and erosion that devastate agriculture, infrastructure and livelihoods. Yet unlike the 2024-25 budget, where explicit flood assistance and disaster relief were provided, this year’s budget made no such earmarked provision for Assam’s recurring natural calamities.
Given that states such as Karnataka, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Telangana account for nearly 40 per cent of India’s services output, the lack of big allocations for regions like Assam underlines a broader imbalance that the budget does nothing to resolve. Budget 2025-26 contains valuable national priorities and sectoral schemes. But assessments must be precise: words about cultural tourism plans, corridor frameworks and incremental allocations do not equate to major developmental investments for Assam.
For a state that grapples with frequent floods, structural slowdowns in services growth and a need for industrial transformation, the budget fails to deliver strategic heft. In the absence of flagship projects, big ticket infrastructure funding or massive skill-job corridors anchored in Assam, one must ask: has political convenience overtaken developmental priorities?
Ctrl Z On Recent High-Profile Visits?
Between December 2025 and January 2026 alone, Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Assam twice, underlining the political importance of the state ahead of elections. Union Home Minister Amit Shah followed with a high-profile visit of his own. Shah’s visit along saw the inauguration and announcement of infrastructure and development projects worth around ₹1,700 crore, the integration of a rail link in the Gohpur–Numaligarh underwater tunnel project, the laying of the foundation stone for the second Assam Legislative Assembly building, and bhoomi pujan for the Kaziranga Elevated Corridor. The Prime Minister also inaugurated the new terminal at Lokapriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport in Guwahati and the Ammonia-Urea project at Namrup.
Yet in politics, one is often judged by the most recent headline. In the absence of a strong, Assam-specific announcement in the Union Budget, the question now is whether this fiscal silence risks diluting the momentum created by these high-profile visits and initiatives in the public imagination.
