New Delhi, Feb. 4 -- India's budget for 2026-27 signals a growing recognition that its financial challenge is no longer one of scale alone, but of structure and effectiveness.

Measures such as the introduction of a market-making framework for corporate bonds, the development of total return swaps and bond-index derivatives, incentives for large municipal bond issuances and the creation of mechanisms such as the Infrastructure Risk Guarantee Fund and real estate investment trusts (REITs) linked to central public sector enterprises (CPSEs) point to an attempt to deepen long-term, market-based finance and improve risk distribution beyond banks.

These initiatives reflect an emerging policy shift away from volume-driven credit expansion towa...