New Delhi, Feb. 2 -- Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Sunday announced a Rs.5,000 crore fund to develop city economic regions (CERs) in tier-2 and tier-3 cities and temple towns. Delivering her ninth budget speech for 2026-27, Sitharaman identified the development of CERs and infrastructure as one of six priority areas of intervention. The urban push includes a Rs.100 crore incentive for municipal bonds issued over Rs.1,000 crore. The seven proposed CERs are Bengaluru, the Bhubaneswar-Puri-Cuttack tricities, Coimbatore-Erode-Tiruppur, Pune, Surat, Varanasi, and Visakhapatnam. "We shall now focus on tier-2, tier-3 cities and even temple towns which need modern infrastructure and basic amenities," the finance minister said. "This ...