The Budget 2026 has almost doubled its support to nuclear research, providing ₹2,410.48 crore to R&D projects under various institutions under the Department of Atomic Energy, compared with ₹1,284.77 crore last year (revised estimate)–an 88% boost.
Notably, the support for capital expenditure has gone up more than for revenue expenditure. The budget gives ₹1,977.20 crore for capital expenditure for nuclear research projects, against ₹928.95 crore in 2025-26 (RE) — an increase of 113%. Support under the ‘revenue’ head has gone up modestly, from ₹355.82 crore to ₹433.38 crore.
Bulk for BARC
Budget allocation to the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), part of the Department of Atomic Energy, has been given a ₹830-crore boost—for its research projects. The finance ministry has upped the budget support to BARC’s R&D projects—capital account—to ₹1,609.16 crore, compared with (the revised estimate of) ₹778.37 crore last year. The budget of 2025-26 had provided ₹880.54 crore, implying that BARC had underspent the amount earmarked for its projects.
Total budget allocation to BARC—capital and revenue—is ₹1800 crore, compared with 918.91 crore in 2025-26 (revised estimate), a 95% increase.
The enhanced budgetary support to BARC could be read in the context of the research body’s remit of developing three small modular reactors—the 200 MW Bharat Small Modular Reactor (BSMR-200), the 55 MW small modular reactor (SMR-55) and the 5 MW (thermal) high temperature gas cooled reactor for producing hydrogen. However, the budget papers do not indicate that the enhanced allocation is necessarily for these projects.
Bonanza for IGCAR
The Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research, Kalpakkam, near Chennai, has got quite a bonanza. Support to ICGAR’s R&D projects has gone up ₹226 crore, against ₹67.86 crore earlier. Of this, the bigger chunk has been given to capital expenditure for these projects—₹183.82 crore, against ₹59.79 crore. Under ‘revenue’ too, the budget allocation has increased to ₹42.18 crore, from ₹17.07 crore.
A footnote to the ‘Notes for Demand for Grants’ of the Department of Atomic Energy says that IGCAR is “engaged in design and development of liquid sodium-cooled fast breeder reactors in the country, as a part of the Nuclear Power Programme Stage two, backed by fuel fabrication and reprocessing.”
Support to DAE flat
While the Budget has made higher allocations to R&D projects under the DAE institutions, the total budgetary support to the department has come down slightly—₹24,123.92 crore, from ₹24,411.47 crore previously (RE 2025-26).
This is clearly because of a sharp decline to the Nuclear Power Corporation of India (NPCIL)’s capital expenditure—₹5,500 crore, compared with ₹8,242 crore (RE 2025-26). This is presumably because NPCIL is doing financially well and does not need budgetary support. According to a recent report of the credit rating agency, Acuite Ratings & Research, NPCIL earned an operating income of ₹20,384.66 crore in 2024-25 and made a net profit of ₹4,737 crore. Though these numbers are lower than those pertaining to the previous year (₹20,567 crore and Rs 6,522.86 crore), Acuite observed that NPCIL’s net worth increased to ₹67,033 crore from ₹61,605 crore and that its financial risk profile was “healthy”.
Published on February 1, 2026
