India’s 2025-26 Union Budget: Key Takeaways for Startups, Investors, and Economic Growth

May 2026A pattern has become too consistent to ignore. Project after project that Tamil Nadu expected, or in some cases had already signed, is ending up in Andhra Pradesh. Royal Enfield, Google, Hwaseung, the AMCA defence hub. The list is long enough now that it reflects something structural, not a run of bad luck.Royal Enfield: First Move Outside Tamil Nadu in 70 YearsRoyal Enfield's decision to build its first factory outside Tamil Nadu since 1955 is the most symbolically loaded shift so far. Eicher Motors, which owns the brand, has committed Rs 2,200 crore to a new manufacturing plant and vendor park at Satyavedu in Tirupati district. The Andhra Pradesh State Investment Promotion Board cleared the proposal on May 6, 2026.The numbers are significant. Royal Enfield currently runs at around 14.6 lakh units of annual production capacity, near full utilisation. The Satyavedu facility will add 9 lakh units across two phases, phase one by 2029 and phase two by 2032, taking total capacity to roughly 23.6 lakh units. Around 5,000 direct and indirect jobs are expected, and the state government has allocated 276 acres across Vanelluru and Rallakuppam villages in Satyavedu mandal.Royal Enfield has officially called this an expansion rather than a relocation, and that is fair. The company also approved a separate Rs 958 crore brownfield expansion at its Cheyyar plant in Tamil Nadu, which will take its TN capacity to 20 lakh units by FY2028. But the geography of the Satyavedu choice is telling. The site sits barely 15 km inside the Andhra Pradesh border, close enough to retain access to the Hosur-Oragadam supplier belt that powers Tamil Nadu's automotive ecosystem. The facility also has an inland container depot on-site, allowing Royal Enfield to containerise motorcycles at the factory gate and move them by rail to whichever port offers the best berth availability, cutting out the truck queues and congestion out of Chennai. In short, the company found a site that gives it most of what Tamil Nadu offers, plus land, logistics flexibility, and a government that moved fast.Google: A $15 Billion Investment That Went to VisakhapatnamIn October 2025, Google announced a $15 billion AI and data centre hub in Visakhapatnam, its largest single infrastructure commitment in India. The project spans three linked campuses covering over 320 acres, with a planned capacity of 1 gigawatt. It is being developed with AdaniConneX and Bharti Airtel, including co-investment in renewable energy, transmission lines, and storage systems. The project is expected to create between 5,000 and 6,000 direct jobs and between 20,000 and 30,000 total jobs in the state.Chennai is a traditional data centre hub with multiple submarine cable landings, which made it a natural candidate. Tamil Nadu opposition party AIADMK publicly accused the DMK state government of failing to engage Google, noting that Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai has roots in Tamil Nadu. When asked about the political noise, Andhra Pradesh IT minister Nara Lokesh offered three words: "He chose Bharat."What Andhra Pradesh offered was a comprehensive incentive package estimated at around Rs 22,000 crore in value, including land subsidies, water tariff subsidies, state GST reimbursement, and power concessions, as well as 480 acres in Visakhapatnam. Karnataka's IT minister Priyank Kharge called the package an "economic disaster." Andhra Pradesh called it a game changer.Hwaseung: Signed With Tamil Nadu, Built in Andhra PradeshSouth Korean manufacturer Hwaseung, which supplies Adidas and Reebok, signed an MoU with the Tamil Nadu government in August 2025 for a Rs 1,720 crore non-leather footwear facility in Thoothkudi. It was to be the company's first production base in India. Within three months, Hwaseung had shifted the project to Kuppam in Andhra Pradesh.The company was direct about why. Its footwear division CEO Bob Shorrock said the company had worked closely with Tamil Nadu's investment agency and with Andhra Pradesh's Economic Development Board and concluded that AP was the right location. Andhra Pradesh allotted 100 acres in Kuppam. The facility is expected to produce 20 million pairs of sports shoes annually and employ around 20,000 people across three phases. Kuppam, incidentally, is Chandrababu Naidu's own constituency.AMCA: A Rs 15,000 Crore Defence Hub Tamil Nadu Was Actively PursuingThe AMCA case is the most pointed. The Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft flight testing and integration complex is tied to India's fifth-generation stealth fighter programme, with an estimated project value of Rs 15,000 crore. Tamil Nadu had lobbied hard for Hosur, offering 100 acres of land at no cost and pointing to the 3.5 km runway at Hosur airport as a logistical advantage. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu laid the foundation stone in Puttaparthi, Andhra Pradesh.The Structural ReasonsAcross these cases, a consistent set of factors explains why Andhra Pradesh is winning. Land is the most immediate one. Tamil Nadu's industrial clusters around Chennai, Oragadam, and Hosur are mature and land-constrained. Andhra Pradesh has large tracts available through APIIC and has shown it can allot hundreds of acres quickly. The Royal Enfield clearance took weeks. In the Premier Energies solar facility case, where a Rs 5,942 crore plant moved from Telangana to Andhra Pradesh's Naidupeta, Naidu's government went from initial talks in October 2024 to land allotment by February 2025, four months.The second factor is incentives. Andhra Pradesh is offering packages that rival states have called reckless, covering land, power, water, and tax reimbursements simultaneously. Karnataka and Tamil Nadu both have stronger fiscal positions than Andhra Pradesh, and both have argued that AP is mortgaging its balance sheet to win headline numbers. That critique may prove correct over time. Andhra Pradesh had the highest revenue deficit in the country in 2022-23. But in the competition for investment announcements, the incentive packages are working.The third factor is political. Chandrababu Naidu has personal relationships at the central government level and has used them to steer defence and technology projects toward Andhra Pradesh. The AMCA project going to Puttaparthi over Hosur, despite Tamil Nadu's infrastructure offer, is the clearest example.Tamil Nadu's counterargument is not without substance. The state has become the primary hub for Apple manufacturing in India, with Foxconn, Pegatron, and Tata Electronics all operating there. Chennai remains one of India's leading destinations for global capability centres. The state has a mature industrial ecosystem, skilled labour, and port infrastructure that no incentive package can replicate overnight.But the deal flow over the past eighteen months shows that maturity alone is no longer enough. In a period when India's manufacturing ambitions are expanding faster than any single state's available land, companies are looking wherever the combination of logistics access, speed of clearance, and cost of land meets their threshold. Andhra Pradesh, under Naidu, has worked hard to be that answer. Tamil Nadu, under the current DMK administration, has repeatedly found that it was not.---Startup Europe India Network is a curated Europe–India–UK platform for technology and science leaders, enabling cross-border collaboration, strategic partnerships, intelligence sharing, and scaling across deep tech and innovation sectors. Get access www.startupeuropeindia.net

GEMINI 3.5 FLASHGoogle's newest and fastest AI model. Despite being in the "Flash" (cheaper/faster) tier, it outperforms Gemini 3.1 Pro on coding and agentic benchmarks. That's a meaningful inversion: the cheaper model is now beating the premium one on the tasks developers actually use AI for.Runs behind most of Google's new products announced at I/O. Also available directly to developers building their own apps and tools. Who gets it: Everyone. Available now for Google AI Plus, Pro, and Ultra subscribers. Developer pricing: $1.50 per million input tokens, $9.00 per million output tokens, roughly 40% cheaper than Gemini 3.1 Pro. Consumer pricing: Included in all paid plans from $7.99/month.GEMINI 3.5 PROThe full-power version of the 3.5 model family, above Flash in capability.Heavy reasoning, research, complex multi-step tasks where you need the strongest model, not the fastest. Who gets it: Not yet available. Sundar Pichai said it would arrive next month. Pricing: Not yet disclosed.GEMINI OMNI FLASHA multimodal model that works across text, images, video, audio, and other input types in one unified system. You can feed it basically anything and have a conversation about it.Editing a video by talking to it, analysing a document you photographed, creating visuals from voice descriptions.Available now for Google AI Plus, Pro, and Ultra subscribers. Pricing: Included in all paid plans.GEMINI SPARKA 24/7 personal AI agent that runs on Google's cloud servers, not on your device. It keeps running even after you close your laptop or lock your phone. It monitors your Gmail, manages your Calendar, and drafts documents in Google Docs without you being actively present.Set recurring tasks like automatically parsing monthly credit card statements to flag subscription fees. Teach it to check your inbox for school updates from your kids and send a daily digest. Ask it to synthesise raw meeting notes from emails and chats, create a polished Google Doc, and draft the follow-up email. You can also teach it custom skills for specific workflows.Rolling out to trusted testers now, with beta access going to US Google AI Ultra subscribers next week. Pricing: Included in the AI Ultra plan ($100/month). Asks your permission before taking high-stakes actions like sending emails or spending money.DAILY BRIEFA lighter version of agentic Gemini that does not run 24/7 but delivers a morning summary. It gathers urgent updates from your Gmail inbox, tracks upcoming events from your Calendar, and compiles relevant follow-up details into a skimmable briefing. It actively organises and prioritises based on your specific goals, even suggesting immediate next steps.Start your day without digging through your inbox. Get a prioritised to-do list generated automatically.Rolling out now to Google AI Plus, Pro, and Ultra subscribers in the US. Pricing: Included in all paid plans from $7.99/month.AI-POWERED SEARCH BOXThe Google Search box has been rebuilt around Gemini. It now supports images, files, videos, and Chrome tabs as inputs alongside text, and is designed to better anticipate intent and help users form questions. Think of it as Search evolving from keyword lookup to a conversation. Paste a screenshot of a product, ask a multi-sentence question in plain English, attach a file and ask questions about it, all directly in the search box.Deploying now in all languages and countries where AI Mode is available. Pricing: Free.ASK YOUTUBEA Gemini-powered feature built into YouTube that lets users ask questions about videos, with support for context and follow-up questions. Instead of scrubbing through a video to find the answer to a specific question, you ask and it finds it."What supplement did they mention at the 12 minute mark?" or "Summarise the arguments in this debate." Particularly useful for long-form content, tutorials, and educational videos. Currently in testing, rolling out broadly in the US this summer. Pricing: Not yet confirmed, likely tied to paid plans.UNIVERSAL CARTA single shopping cart that follows you across Google Search, Gemini, YouTube, and Gmail. The moment you add a product, it works in the background to find deals, track price history, alert you to price drops, and flag stock availability. It also flags product incompatibilities, for example warning you that a motherboard and processor you added are not compatible.You see a product mentioned in a YouTube video, add it to your cart without leaving YouTube, and the cart automatically tracks it for a week until it goes on sale.Rolling out across Search and the Gemini app this summer, with YouTube and Gmail to follow. Pricing: Free, built on Google Wallet.ANDROID HALOA persistent visual indicator at the top of your Android screen that shows what AI agents are actively doing in the background at any given moment. As agents become capable of running tasks independently, this tells you what they are doing without you having to check.Glance at the top of your phone and see that Gemini Spark is drafting your meeting recap or that an agent finished booking a restaurant. Oversight without micromanagement.Coming with Android 17 later this year. Pricing: Free, part of Android 17.GOOGLE PICSA new image creation and editing tool inside Google Workspace, similar to Canva, for building posters, flyers, and infographics. It treats every element as an individual object rather than a flat image, so you can swap or edit specific details without redoing the whole thing. All output is watermarked with SynthID.A small business owner creates a promotional flyer by describing it in plain text. A marketing team edits individual elements of a graphic without going back to a designer.Rolling out this summer to Google AI Pro and Ultra subscribers. Pricing: Included in Pro ($19.99/month) and Ultra ($100/month).STITCHGoogle's design tool for building apps and websites, updated with real-time collaborative design via Stitch Agent. Now includes exports to Antigravity and direct publishing to Netlify.A team designs a web app together in real time, then publishes it directly without switching tools.Available now for developers. Pricing: Not separately disclosed.GOOGLE FLOWGoogle's creative studio for video and media work, now updated with Gemini Omni and multi-action AI agents. Includes custom tools via Flow Tools.Filmmakers and content creators running multi-step production workflows, like generating footage, editing, and scoring, with agents handling parallel tasks simultaneously.New features available now. Pricing: Not separately disclosed.ANDROID XR GLASSES (SAMSUNG, WARBY PARKER, GENTLE MONSTER)Audio glasses that provide all-day Gemini access with responses spoken privately into the wearer's ear. Can take photos, play music, handle calls, and access apps. Compatible with both Android and iOS.Hands-free translation when travelling, getting directions without looking at your phone, receiving a briefing spoken in your ear before a meeting.Launching this fall. Pricing and full specifications still to be confirmed.XREAL PROJECT AURADisplay glasses with actual OLED lenses, not just audio. Powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon processor and capable of a 70-degree field of view. These show information visually overlaid in your field of vision.See real-time directions overlaid on the street in front of you, read a translation of a menu without looking down at your phone. Who gets it: Shown at I/O, no release date or pricing confirmed yet.GOOGLE ANTIGRAVITY 2.0Google's developer platform for building AI agents. Rebuilt to be agent-first, meaning it is designed from the ground up for apps that do things autonomously, not just apps that answer questions.Developers building tools that automate workflows, run tasks overnight, connect to APIs, and manage multi-step processes without user input at each step.CLI, SDK, and Native Voice Support available globally from May 19. Pricing: Free via Google AI Studio.SUBSCRIPTION PRICING (UPDATED)AI Plus: $7.99/month. Includes Gemini 3.5 Flash, the Gemini app with Omni, and Daily Brief.AI Pro: $19.99/month. Higher usage limits, more storage, Google Workspace integration, Google Pics later this summer.AI Ultra: $100/month (was $250). Includes 5x higher usage limits than Pro, 20TB cloud storage, YouTube Premium, and Gemini Spark beta access starting next week for US subscribers.Google is also replacing daily prompt limits with a compute-used model, where a simple text message costs less of your monthly allowance than a complex video editing or coding request. You pay proportionally to how much you actually use.Here is the complete I/O videoStartup Europe India Network is a curated Europe–India–UK platform for technology and science leaders, enabling cross-border collaboration, strategic partnerships, intelligence sharing, and scaling across deep tech and innovation sectors. Get access www.startupeuropeindia.net