Industry reactions on Union Budget (Part-3)

Jeetender Sharma, Managing Director & Founder, Okinawa Autotech
 
“Okinawa Autotech welcomes the government’s focus on sustainable growth under the spirit of Amrit Kaal. The elaborate focus on capital expenditure, infrastructure development, green growth, rural development health, education and skilling will support the nation to play a dominant role in the new world. We compliment Finance Minister for providing a big boost to green mobility. The exemption on custom duties on the import of capital goods and machinery required for the manufacture of lithium-ion cells will lead to faster adoption of electric vehicles in the country. This will further aid the development of an efficient EV ecosystem. Further, the push for the scrappage policy will support the overall growth of the entire automobile sector. The budget outlays the strong foundation for India’s long-term vision under  ‘panchamrit’ and net-zero carbon emission goals for 2070 to usher in a green industrial and economic transition. We also believe that the relief in personal income tax will improve the consumer confidence & purchasing power in the country.”

Puneet K, President, Narayana Group
“My expectations from the Union Budget were investments in physical and digital infrastructure, cutting-edge technologies such as AI and ML, and the implementation of well-defined training programs to improve the quality of teachers. I am pleased to see that the government has taken concrete measures to address these issues across the education sector. The government’s decision to increase the allocation for school education by 8% is a positive development for the industry.
The establishment of a national digital library and physical libraries at the panchayat level will greatly enhance equitable access to high-quality resources. This will benefit students in rural areas, lower-middle class families, and those below the poverty line. It will also broaden their knowledge base as envisioned in the Padhe Bharat scheme.
Improving the quality of teachers is essential to the successful implementation of the New Education Policy (NEP). The government's decision to reimagine teacher training through innovative pedagogy,curriculum transaction, and ICT integration is commendable. The establishment of centers of teaching excellence in every district will reduce disparities in the quality of education received by students in semi-urban and rural areas.
The government's efforts to improve 5G capabilities for smart classrooms will further enhance learning through access to high-quality content and personalization.The Union Budget 2023 has taken the right steps towards providing affordable, high-quality education for all. I am confident that it will address the most pressing needs of India's learner.”

Nalin Negi, CEO (Interim) & CFO, BharatPe
"We warmly embrace the Union budget 2023. Fintechs have come a long way over the last few years, and the Government’s initiatives to drive financial inclusion and enable digital payments have been one of the key drivers of the growth journey of this sector. Fintech services in India have been facilitated by India's digital public infrastructure including Aadhaar, PM Jandhan Yojna, video KYC, India Stack and UPI, and digital payments have grown by 76% in transactions in 2022. In this budget, FM Nirmala Sitharaman has reimagined the government's Digilocker services for the fintech sector. This will further aid the growth of the sector, along with the Government’s continued support to drive digital payments. Also, the government’s plans for encouraging countries looking for digital continuity solutions to set up data embassies at the GIFT City will further help position India as a global leader in the fintech industry. Technological advancements can give us the edge as we strive to become a US$ 5 trillion economy. The announcement of setting up of Centres of Excellence for AI will fuel the focus on technology and innovation. Also, the National Data Governance Policy that will bring in innovation and research by startups and academia will enable access to anonymized data.”

Nirmit Parikh, Founder & CEO, apna
“The central government’s push to skilling in the country for lakhs of youth in the Budget 2023-24 is a welcome move, considering the youth are the pillars of our economy. This initiative will open avenues and create millions of job opportunities in emerging technologies for over 100 million youth in the country – a huge motivation for students and graduates to thrive and succeed in their home country. Furthermore, I also commend the Government’s announcement around the launch of a unified Skill India Digital platform for enabling demand-based formal skilling, linking with employers including MSMEs, and facilitating access to entrepreneurship schemes. The vision of empowering youth and MSMEs is a strong blueprint for India@100 which is being built on inclusive India.”

Arvind Mediratta MD & CEO, METRO Cash & Carry India.
“A pro-growth budget with credible roadmap with numbers; Big thrust on capital expenditure that has gone up by 33% along with lots for middle class. Amount of inclusiveness in this budget from medium to long-term perspective, especially given the global inflationary market, will help maintain fiscal discipline, lead to capacity building and help accelerate India’s growth prospects.
The priority towards green fuels, sustainability is a very good move. Lot of allocations have been made for the rural sector. This will give spur consumption and boost growth towards achieving $5 trillion economy.
The revamped Credit guarantee for MSMEs and additional infusion of Rs9000cr is great development for MSMEs that are still recovering from the impact of pandemic. The announcement of decriminalizing 3400 legal provisions may not be quantifiable in terms of numeric but is a huge positive step towards reducing compliance burden and enhancing ease of doing business.  Also, the much-awaited income tax slab change is a huge tax relief for the salaried middle class and will help boost spends and consumption.”

Nitya Sharma, CEO & Co-founder, Simpl
“We welcome the budget for providing much-needed impetus to the country’s startup ecosystem. Announcements such as the extension of the date of incorporation for income tax benefits to start-ups from 31st March 2023 to 31st March 2024 and the provision of providing the benefit of carry forward of losses on change of shareholding of start-ups from seven years of incorporation to ten years, are truly great moves. Moreover, the government has also deducted a whopping 39,000 compliances that MSMEs needed to abide by and decriminalised over 3,400 legal provisions. Such steps will play an instrumental role in ensuring the ease of doing business in the country. Entrepreneurship is the very backbone of India’s economic development. Therefore, the measures suggested in the recently unveiled economic survey, such as capital gains tax regimes like those of Singapore and the UAE and capital flow procedures similar to those in countries like the US and Singapore, to accelerate the reverse-flipping of startups back to Indian shores, are vital moves.”

Rahul Attuluri, CEO and Co-founder at NxtWave
“We wholeheartedly welcome the Government’s initiatives announced in the Budget 2023-24. The re-envisioning of Teachers Training through integrated curriculum transaction, continuous professional development, dipstick service, ICT implementation and the development of the district Institute of Education and Training as institutes of excellence are a great move towards augmenting the existing education ecosystem in the country. Also, the setting up of the National Digital Library for children and adolescents where quality books across geographies, languages, and levels and device agnostic accessibility will be made available is a great initiative to make up for lost learning time students faced during the pandemic. 
The youth are the future of the country. Therefore, to empower youth and to help the Amrit Peedhi realize their dreams, the Government’s National Education Policy will especially focus on skilling youths by adopting economic policies that facilitate job creation. The Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana 4.0 will be launched to skill lakhs of youth in the next three years. Moreover, to skill the youth for international employment opportunities, over 30 Skill India International Centres will be set up across different States. 
NxtWave is always ready to take forward the vision of the Government and empower Indian youth with required skills and become job-ready.  We are happy that the government is establishing a strong AI ecosystem in India to train skilled AI professionals. This will help us to develop practical AI applications in regional and sustainable cities.”

Neeraj Choudhary, Group head finance, Absolote, a plant bioscience company
“Government's commitment to ‘green growth’ approach is a step towards building a cleaner India. The government has clearly sent across a strong message that sustainability has to be central to economic and social growth. As per Economic Survey, agriculture has performed well but the sector needs "re-orientation" to overcome challenges like adverse impacts of climate change, rising input cost, etc. India’s G20 presidency gives a unique opportunity to strengthen India’s role in the world economic. The budget presented a slew of initiatives that reflected our motive to take Indian agriculture to the world. To maintain this growth momentum the total allocation for the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare in the 2022-23 Budget was Rs 1.32 lakh crore, which was 4.3 percent higher than the revised estimates of the 2021-22 Budget. Backed by the financial allocation, the move to create Agriculture Accelerator Fund will act as a catalyst to not only encourage agripreneurship but also unlock value in the agribusiness value chain that will boost profitability for the farmers.  Digitization is the future and with government announcing building robust Digital Public Infrastructure, the growers stand a chance to get a huge benefits. This move is expected to improve access to farm inputs, market intelligence, and boost agricultural businesses. The agricultural credit target will be increased to Rs 20 lakh crores to enhance coverage of small and marginal farmers in the formal credit system will open business opportunities for local farmers, leading to doubling their income.  Encouraging farmers to adopt natural farming, the government plans to set up 10,000 bio inputs resource centres. Besides, the centre plans to develop 100 labs for developing using 5G services. These labs will enable facilities like precision farming, intelligent transports systems and others. Overall, a future-forward budget that keep nature and nation and nature at.”