What's in Union Budget 2026 for you?

and a big reveal!🌱

Notice anything different? Maybe the look and feel of this issue is a little different? That's because we have newsss!

🥁 DoorDesi has now gone from being a passion project to becoming a part of my actual job.

Hi, I am Sudeshna and I have a media company (First Draft Media) that I co-own with two other fabulous people! First Draft Media, among other things, is also a publisher, as in a company that supports indepedent publications such as DoorDesi with everything it takes to run one - from technical infrastructure to legal backing to business development. DoorDesi started as a project Mili and I were passionate about, not knowing where it would go. But over the past six months so many of you have so consistently supported this space that we made a big decision a month ago that has finally come to fruition.

🎉 First Draft Media is now the publisher of DoorDesi!

For you that means no difference. I am still me and still the one writing this. For me that means I have a slightly bigger team for support, brainstorming, and pushback. For me it also means I can take some time off on the weekends because this is more than my passion project now.

🌱 DoorDesi now also has a new address and that is doordesi.xyz and you can reach me at sudeshna@doordesi.xyz. The website still needs a lot of love but you guys have seen me build this product with you from day one so I am asking for your patience while we make it all DoorDesi. I am looking forward to this journey. I hope you are too.

Love,

S.

P.S. This week's issue is all about Union Budget 2026 because Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented it last Sunday. And since a lot of us still have a financial relationship with India (besides, of course, the emotional one), I figured I'd tell you all you need to know to plan your own finances.

If you have found DoorDesi to be useful because you learnt something new or because if helped you make a decision or simply because you felt seen, consider supporting it with a paid membership. It hopefully doesn't cost you more than a cup of coffee (or bubble tea 🧋) a month, but it tells me that we are building something worth paying for. And that means a lot! Thanks!

Just the gist

🔗 Budget brings bureaucratic relief for NRIs

So many of us have spent days during our annual India visit running between Aadhar centre and banks, going through documents after documents. This year's Union Budget has finally tapped into one of the most annoying things about being an NRI - the bureaucracy of it all.

Apparently whether global income could be taxed in India due to unclear definition of 'NRI' was an uncertainty that many faced. I did not but I also live under a rock when it comes to these things.

Anyway, this year's Union Budget has reaffirmed that income earned and received outside India by 'genuine NRIs' will remain outside of Indian tax net. A genuine NRI in this case is someone who has Indian citizenship and lives outside India for 182+ days in a fiscal year.

➡️ This year's Union Budget seems to have focused heavily on consolidating mutiple rulings into few and reducing bureaucracy overload when it comes to consideration for NRIs.

🔗 India calling for NRI investors

In the previous issue I had written about heavy outflow of foreign investment due to a weakening currency, political uncertaintly, and uncertain policies. In 2025, INR 19 billion was pulled out from the Indian market by foreign investors and another INR 4 billion in January 2026. So the Indian government is now looking at us, DoorDesis, for relief.

Indians living overseas can now invest in India stocks through the Portfolio Investment Scheme (PIS) which allows NRIs and foreign investors to trade in India stocks through a special bank account approved by the RBI.

The investment ceiling in listed Indian companies by NRIs has also been increased to 10% from 5%, which means you can own up to 10% of any India listed company.

➡️ For those who have been watching India's tech boom, especially green energy shift, this is a great opportunity to invest in companies you believe in.

🔗 More liquidity, more remittance

This might be more relevant for those receiving money from India (I see you, you anxious, overworked, underfed university student), but relevant nonetheless.

The Tax Collected at Source (TCS) on money sent abroad for education was 5%. The same was true for medical expenses abroad. This is now down to 2%. So an INR 50Lakh tuition fee will now have a TCS of INR 1 lakh instead of INR 2.5 lakh. That is a significant saving.

An even more significant saving will happen when purchasing foreign tour packages. The TCS on that has gone down from 20% to 2%. Book that DDLJ Switzerland trip for your parents, my friend, and have them do it via a company in India. Swiss francs might wring you dry but at least it will be at a lower AQI with great views.

➡️ TCS is not an additional tax. It is refunded when income tax returns are filed. However, it does reduce liquidity of a household significantly for a while. This is especially pressing when dealing with medical fees and college tuitions while running a household in today's economy.

🔗 Selling sunset with less paperwork

Last but not the least, selling property as an NRI is now easier. While tax implications have remained the same, the bureaucracy around it has reduced.

Look at me talking like I know the first thing about selling (or even owning) real estate in India. Yo mama is so middle class that there isn't even a family dispute over property. :D

But that does not stop me from assuming that you might. So, selling property as an NRI meant long delays while procuring a thousand and one documentation for both the seller and the buyer. That has now been simplified by the government and can be carried out more easily.

➡️ If you have been considering buying OR selling property in India, or doing pretty much any transaction that has tax implications, make sure to have your NRE/NRO accounts sorted and cleanly separated by transaction. NRE accounts can be used for transaction in foreign currency and are exempt from taxation, both the principal amount and the interest. Your NRO account, on the other hand should be used for domestic transaction and is NOT tax exempt. Do with this info what you will. I live under a rock so I learned about this difference recently, hence the public service announcement.

Trending on the internet

Unlike most weeks, sadly (or not sadly) I cannot tell you what is trending on the internet this week because I have been off social media, more or less, this week. The reasons are as follows:

• AI slop online. It is bad enough that we spend so much time scrolling and so little time connecting. I do not have the desire to add AI slop to the mix and lately A LOT of content online is AI slop. What started as a fun experiment has now become the norm and my brain is fried. I am not anti-AI when it comes to workflow optimisation. But lazy content creation is where I draw the line.
• The Epstein files. Yes, the world sucks. The constant reminder got to me. That is really all I can say about it because so many people on that list are making so many major decisions around us that, well, I have nothing left to say.
• Human rights abuses in Palestine, Iran, Ukraine, Sudan, S. Sudan, Yemen, Afghanistan, the U.S. to name a few.

It is disorienting to scroll from a cat video to a video about mass murder of protestors in Iran to a Grammy's video to one about XYZ influential person on Epstein Island. This is not normal. It should not be normal. Putting our head in the sand is certainly not an option either. I do not have an answer. But lately I have turned to art, murder mysteries, and my cat. Do what you need to do, except for calling your 'apolitical'. Because everyone and everything is political.

Read with me

🔗 The invisible women of the Union Budget

Budgets love saying they’re about growth. But whose growth?

India’s Union Budget 2026-27 reallocates labour-related spending in ways that structurally favour urban, formal work (which tends to employ men) over rural, informal work (which overwhelmingly employs women). The most striking example is the stark reduction in funding for MGNREGA, the rural employment programme that historically has been the largest employer of women in the country.

MGNREGA wasn’t perfect, but it did three crucial things. It guaranteed work by law. It allowed people (especially women) to work close to home. and it paid wages directly, without intermediaries.

But MGNREGA funding was cut drastically (from ₹86,000 crore to about ₹30,000 crore), shifting emphasis to the PM Viksit Bharat Rozgar Yojana — an urban/formal sector job incentive scheme with a much smaller direct impact on rural women.

The new urban-focused schemes don’t offer the same guarantees. They rely more on employers, state co-funding, and seasonal incentives. The money is moving from rural, informal work (where ~59% of MGNREGA workers are women) to urban, formal labour markets (where many new hires are men).

➡️ Budget choices aren’t just about numbers — they shift the structure of employment opportunities and whose work is valued and supported by the State.

👋 That's all for this week. It's a long one because of the announcement I had to make. If you are reading this then here, 💌, take my heart because you deserve it.

Take care and see you next week!

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