As we enter 2026, it is important to recognise that identifying and managing risks has emerged as a constant force shaping competitiveness, resilience, and long-term value creating capabilities of companies. Artificial intelligence (AI) has accelerated innovation but also introduced new forms of model risk, ethical dilemmas and systemic vulnerabilities. While there have been certain positive signs in select segments of the financial markets, private credit, leveraged structures and opaque exposures continue to test traditional risk frameworks. At the same time, climate volatility, geopolitical tensions, cyber threats and regulatory recalibration have expanded the risk landscape far beyond conventional boundaries. Importantly, as one moves into 2026, a defining theme for the year ahead is the increased reliance on shared technology platforms, cloud infrastructure and external service providers. Risk resilience cannot be assessed at an entity level, and the need arises to highlight infrastructure digital and third-party dependency risk.
At the 56th World Economic Forum (WEF) held at Davos, Switzerland, there were references to a series of risks emerging for Indian in 2026. Some the primary ones include the following:
Cybersecurity emerged as India’s immediate severe risk. In 2025 alone, there were over 369 million malware detections in the country, with India having rapidly moved into IT-based governance, finance and critical activities, where IT infrastructure development far outpaced cyber resilience capabilities. In fact, the concentration of data and digital platforms that create single-point vulnerabilities that raises cyber insecurity from a technical to a national strategic issue.
Geoeconomic confrontation has emerged as a major threat facing globally integrated national economies like India’s. The country is increasingly facing different regional tariff sanctions, investment screening, and technology restrictions in a global economy getting largely fragmented. In 2025, there already was a large foreign institutional investors capital outflow. This is affecting capital flows, supply chain continuity and export markets.
AI governance and a frontier technology paradigm shift is witnessing global developments that have major ramifications for India. AI power concentration has created global vulnerabilities with countries like India needing to diversify access to avoid over dependence. As AI gets increasingly integrated into economic activities, a range of related emerging risks have emerged including model failures, security vulnerabilities, unemployment-related social fractures and weakening consumer confidence.
Supply chain volatility has emerged as not only a temporary disruption but a structural phenomenon. Across the chain, there is much greater emphasis on resilience investments rising above mere cost optimization. This involves moving from reactive contingency planning to proactive ecosystem coordination. While the country does have a large domestic market, it is imperative for overall economic development to leverage global markets warranting appropriate capital allocation, modular operational plans, and strategic partnerships across regions.
Economic inequality was identified by the Global Risk Report as India’s second biggest risk. It highlighted how income inequalities amplify distress amongst informal workers during crises like pandemics and inflationary episodes. This represents a systemic risk that affects worker stability, consumer demand, and social license to operate. Public service remains insufficient and there is inadequate social protection resulting in certain vulnerabilities. There needed to be focused inclusive growth strategy with robust social support systems and community engagement.
Issues with digital public infrastructure may turn India’s critical developmental asset for tomorrow into issues in today’s activities. There is a need to establish digital sovereignty through secure compute capacity, sustainable data centre ecosystem, and frameworks aligned with digital personal data protection (DPDP). It emerged that data concentration creates vulnerabilities and distributed architecture, quantum resistant encryption standards, and robust data protection governance was the need of the hour.
Rewiring of trade flows and regionalization emerged as a key economic direction for 2026. Global markets are seeking autonomy from volatile cross border flows and increasingly economies are gunning to establish self-sufficiency. While India benefits from this diversification trend, Indian players need to navigate trade corridors, regulatory regimes and quality standards.
Energy transition and security is also emerging as a critical risk factor. It is important to highlight that one data center consumes energy equivalent to a town with 100,000 households. In fact, electricity was seen as core to any economic development for India. Energy availability, price volatility and transition to risks related to carbon regulations and business continuity are the major concerns. Amidst this environment the move to renewable energy also has its share of risks.
Skills transition and work force resilience> is key to economic transition from a human perspective. It is important for governments and businesses to invest in people, and building resilient workforce by supporting skill transition, which is imperative in the new operational environment. Human centric skills–creativity, critical thinking, resilience and empathy are emerging as critical skill factors that are today not well present in the workforce. Appropriate workforce preparedness is a major risk for economic activity soon.
These key emerging risks highlight a single strategic insight for economic players. This involves the fundamental fact that going forward risk is increasingly systemic, interconnected and requires leadership integration and not just technical containment. For the actuarial profession, these riskspossess a completely new set of challenges and opportunities where fundamental skill sets can be leveraged.