Industry reactions on Union Budget (Part-14)

Nagaraj Krishnan, Managing Director, Aparajitha Corporate Services Private Limited
“We see a lot of positivity in the budget proposals tabled by Hon’ble Finance Minister Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman.

    India is evolving as a robust and strong global economy. Indian economy has become more formalised as witnessed by significant enhancement in digital payments. Per capita income has increased to Rs 1.97 lakh. Indian economy has increased in size from being 10th to 5th largest global economy in last nine years.
    Agri credit has been increased which could result in inclusive growth. The budget envisages India becoming a global hub for Sri Ann or Millets.
    Big boost to medical research and health care can help overall reach and affordability of health care to all.
    Capital investment outlay increased by 33 percent from existing 3.3 percent of GDP could result in driving economy to speedy growth enables opportunity for large and MSME companies and in job creation across all levels. Welcome capital infusement into railways to the tune of 2.4 lakh crore. 9k credit guarantee scheme for MSME is another booster for this sector for revival and growth.
    50 additional airports can help last mile connectivity and helps in new employment opportunities. 
    Continued thrust on ease of boing business – no mentioning about the implementation of labour codes – 39k compliance reduced and 3k legal provisions decriminalised. 
    PAN is going to be the common identifier across all government machineries help in simplification of access for the individual and aggregation of data for better compliance for the government. 
    Replacement of old polluting vehicles through scraping policy by Central and State governments can provide impetus to automobile industry and provides thrust to strong development of vehicle scarp industry.
    Relief in customs duty on mobile parts, TV parts, lithium batteries, heat coils and other electronic parts can attract more migration of investments from China to India.
    Relief in personal income tax can leave additional money in the pockets of the individuals which can lead to more spending and savings. 

The budget indicates that it’s a good time for companies to go for expansion and create more employment.”

Arjun Gulati, Co-Founder, Easydesq
“As India enters its Amrit Kal, the government of India has propelled us into a year of economic pursuits with the Budget 2023. With the proposed changes, India will be among the fastest-growing major economies in 2023 and the coming years.” 
 
The budget, with its focus on startups and entrepreneurial ventures, has its sight set on furthering India's position as the world's 3rd largest startup ecosystem. This budget also takes Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision of a Digital India a step ahead by focusing on AI and IoT and increasing our digital prowess through innovative technologies.
 
Aligned with the G20 theme of "Vasudev Kutumbakam", the budget has also promised the completion of 80 lakh houses under PM Awas Yojana (PMAY), for which the government has allotted Rs. 48,000 crores. The outlay of the PMAY is also being enhanced by 66 per cent to over Rs 79,000 crores. Additionally, homebuyers will get elbow room to purchase due to the extension of Credit Linked Subsidy Scheme (CLSS). This move also addresses resolving the urban housing shortage among low and middle-income groups and promoting homeownership among women.

With a significant focus on the Saptrishi arena, this budget is highly growth-focused and is undoubtedly a step to tap India's economic potential.
 

Gaurav Goel, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Toprankers:
“Directing focus towards the new and emerging fields, the Budget reflects great foresight in skilling for industry 4.0, which includes soft skills for job-readiness and is likely to improve the number of workforce. Improvement in pedagogy, more centres of excellence, the launch of a unified Skill India Digital Platform, a digital approach to bridge the pandemic learning loss via the National Digital Library, and a drive towards ICT in most significant proposals are all positive signs for the industry!” 

 
Sarvesh Shrivastava, MD and Co-founder, Eupheus Learning:
“We saw some encouraging steps being taken for the education sector under the 2023 Budget layout. Especially the emphasis on setting up digital libraries and teacher training, it was also heartening to hear about the increase in the spends %age on education. While accelerated digitalization and teacher training is amongst the key mandates of NEP 2020, we will see an accelerated role being played by the EdTech companies if the tax structure around their services/ solutions are also addressed in a more progressive manner.”
 
Nimish Arora, President, EO Gurgaon
“2023-24 looks like an opportune year for propelling the Indian economy. India is all set to to be among the fastest-growing major economies and over the next few years. With consistent focus on the "Saptrishi" priorities, the budget is highly growth focussed with a huge capital expenditure outlay of 10 lakh crores.
 
In line with the previous budgets, it has also continued on a path of fiscal consolidation, with a target of 5.9% fiscal deficit. The budget also has extended support to start-ups and entrepreneurial ventures through income tax benefits and extending carry forward of losses to 10 years to further India's position as the 3rd largest start-up ecosystem in the world. It has also bolstered a Digital India outlook by focusing on AI, IoT, and a digital economy for ease of doing business and ease of living. The 2023 budget is a blueprint with a nice green touch, increasing focus on green initiatives such as e waste recycling, green hydrogen mission, vehicle scrapping and energy transition initiatives. The loudest applause, however, would be for the improved state of individual taxpayers, with the tax rebate limit increased to Rs 7 lakh which will give higher spending power to the middle class thereby supporting the entire economic growth. There was also relief for the highest tax bracket payers by reducing their effective tax rate by 3.7% approx. With these significant facets of the budget, India is undoubtedly heading towards an Amrit Kal.”

Vipul Verma, Executive Vice President, Wadhwani Advantage at Wadhwani Foundation,
“Additional infusion into the credit guarantee outlay will help increase the number of MSME enterprises in the formal financial ecosystem. This can further help in improvement of the MSME/s operations, growth and scale, leading to an upkick in job creation. The impact will be more notable in some geographies where the potential to grow the number of MSME/s is substantially higher.”

Amit Tyagi, CEO, Payworld
“In the Union Budget 2023-24 our Honourable Finance Minister considered Financial Services as one of the key pillars of growth during the Amrit Kaal that focused on financial stability with technology-driven innovation. Undoubtedly, the Union Budget has provided a much larger-than-expected boost to growth-inducing capital spending, while at the same time managing a fair degree of fiscal consolidation. The significant increase in online payments to 76 percent in transactions and 91 percent in value clearly shows a valuable surge in the adoption of FinTech services in India and gives us an opportunity to serve better, in the coming years. The announcement about the simplified KYC process by adopting a risk-based approach rather than a one-size-fits-all approach is another great step towards building a better digital economy of the nation. Besides, the regulators in the financial sector will also be encouraged to have a KYC system fully amenable to meet the needs of digital India. The government’s plan to launch DigiLocker storage and sharing services for MSMEs and other business entities, including startups, to enable more innovation in fintech services will give the FinTech startups ease to boost their businesses. The financial information registry looks like a great step towards the Atma Nirbhar Bharat in the financial space. credit guarantee scheme for MSMEs will further accelerate the growth of the sector in line with our vision of becoming a 5 trillion-dollar economy. Also, investments in Capex will supercharge economic growth and will help in more equitable growth of the nation.”

Vikram Ahuja - Managing Director, ANSR and Co-founder & CEO, Talent500
“The 2023 Union Budget hits all the right notes for skill development and the start-up ecosystem in India. As one of the leading suppliers of talent in data and AI, India produces 16% of the world’s AI talent pool. The Budget’s focus on AI-led skill-development by announcing the three centres for artificial intelligence is a welcome move. This will be further amplified by the decision to set up 30 Skill India International centres across different states to cover new age courses for coding, AI, robotics, mechatronics IoT, drones etc.
Overall, the Budget has reinforced India’s positioning as a technology-driven and knowledge-based economy and I'm optimistic that there will be easier and more friendly regulatory moves to support our growth as a global innovation hub. However, lack of investments in IT Infrastructure in Tier-2 and 3 cities is a big miss, considering the huge talent pool dispersed across such cities in the country.”

Ramesh Doraiswami, Managing Director & CEO, National Bulk Handling Corporation (NBHC)  
" The Union Budget 2023-24 proposes a continued focus on the key areas of improving farmgate infrastructure and promoting the use of technology to improve farm incomes. The creation of Digital Public Infrastructure for Agriculture is commendable as it will be an open source of information services for crop planning and health, improved access to farm inputs, credit, and insurance & market intelligence, which today are not available readily to farmers thereby limiting their income. The announcement of the Agriculture Accelerator Fund to promote rural entrepreneurship focussed on agriculture is another welcome step.  It will be interesting to see the details of this fund since it could also stimulate rural employment. In the “International Year of the Millet”, the announcement to make IIMR Hyderabad a global centre of excellence of millets is a big step forward as well.  Overall, the budget presents a positive outlook for the agriculture sector and is likely to have a positive impact on the growth of agri-tech companies.”