Post Budget Reactions from Industry Leaders
Souma Das, Managing Director, Teradata India
“We welcome the Finance Minister’s emphasis on adoption of new age technologies like artificial intelligence, blockchain and machine learning. Leveraging these technologies will drive new insights from data to enable better policy implementation and fast-track reforms leading to improvement in citizen services and accelerating economic growth. We are excited about the government’s continued focus towards Digital India as it enables transparency, better governance and resource utilisation. The thrust on digitization by doubling the expenditure for ‘Digital India’ and setting up programs to channelize research efforts in new-age technologies is definitely a step in right direction”
Mr. Anshuman Panwar, Co-Founder, Creditas Solutions Pvt Limited.
“The budget focuses on inclusive growth with significant thrust on empowering women, poor and farmers. I believe this will contribute to the holistic growth of India. Doubling the allocation for digital investments is a good move too and will help the country’s vision to be a digital-first economy.
The reduction in corporate tax for midsize companies will boost investments. Furthermore, the recapitalisation of Public Sector Banks to provide credit availability is also significant but its success will depend on the execution and implementation of the policy.
Quite significantly, the Finance Minister has acknowledged the role of Fintech companies in shoring up the credit market in India and his unequivocal support is a great news for all Fintech companies.”
Mr. Rohit Kulkarni, Country Manager at Payoneer India – “It was heartening to see our Finance Minister recognizing India’s MSME enterprises as a major element for growth and the fastest growing sector post demonetization and GST. The FM in the 2018 budget has reduced the tax for MSME’s by 5%. The deduction of tax has come down to 25% from 30%. This gives MSME’s and other traders an opportunity to expand their services globally and venture their businesses into various global marketplaces.
Another major highlight of the budget is, government encouraging fintech companies on the usage of blockchain technology in India which has the potential to positively impact the payment sector, leading towards a more digital India. Adoption of these newer technologies can help to improve real-time data analytics, and have a positive impact on risk identification and fraud analysis, which can be an important tool in securing India’s dream of becoming a digital economy ”
Mr Archit Gupta, Founder & CEO ClearTax : Standard deduction has been reintroduced but at a cost, it takes away medical reimbursement and travel allowance. There were several demands to raise medical reimbursement from 15,000 and bring it up according to current prices (the amount has been same since more than a decade). However, now the clamour for raising this limit will die down. With this, for a salaried, the amount taxable under salary shall be reduced by Rs 5,800. While cess will go up by 1%. Senior citizens have much to rejoice and will face much lower burden of taxes, this is especially crucial in the falling interest rates from banks and deposits.
Rajesh Rege, Managing Director, Red Hat, India and SAARC – “It was a well-rounded budget. Emphasis on education, entrepreneurship & healthcare was much needed & is welcome. FM’s comments on AI & Blockchain are a step in the right direction & we look to an early implementation of these initiatives.”
Mr. Arvind Bali, Videocon Telecom and Videocon WallCam –
The budget has a clear push towards socio-economic growth of the country with aggressive focus on agriculture, education, rural economy, healthcare and infrastructure. The allocations aimed towards rural India will increase consumption which boost industries and help in nation building. Focus on digital solution and new age technologies is a big push in terms of creating the right environment for the next level of development in India. The increase in customs duty will further boost ‘Make in India’.
Rajan Navani, Vice Chairman and Managing Director of Jetsynthesys (Jetline Group) said
“Budget 2018 demonstrated the commitment of the government on Digital India by doubling allocation, developing an increased focus on new technologies including artificial Intelligence and blockchain. The contribution of new age businesses and technologies over the next decade to GDP will be significant as will be the ability of Indian companies to be part of global supply chains through value added technologies. All of this will result in more entrepreneurs and additional jobs that will drive the future of a New India.
The incentive provided to 5G, increased Wi-Fi hotspots and smart cities will drive greater data consumption which will particularly benefit the online and mobile gaming companies in India.
ModiCare, different from ObamaCare, is something that should have been done in India long ago. The one item a common man doesn’t budget for is unexpected healthcare costs for family members and many a times it completely messes up his finances. Providing a cover of ₹5 lacs to 10Cr families is indeed the highlight of this budget 2018 and will be a game changer for India if implemented smartly and efficiently.
Further, in our land of frugal innovation in healthcare, the same can happen at a fraction of the cost in western countries.”
Ms. Ambika Sharma- Founder & MD, Instappy
“The latest budget announcement holds great promise. I am particularly enthused by doubling the allocation to Digital India to Rs 3073 cr for the 2018-19 fiscal and. This move will empower the society in areas like broadband and mobile connectivity and government services on demand and will help the country’s vision to be a digital-first economy.
Furthermore, the allocation of INR 10,000 crore for the 5 lakh WiFi HotSpots to provide Broadband access to 5 crore rural citizens is also promising. With nearly 70% of the country’s population living in rural and semi-urban geographies, the move will give the vision of a ‘Digital India’ a big boost and provide businesses an opportunity to upscale.”
Neeraj Sharma, Country Head – Spreadtrum India.
“The increase in the customs duty on imported mobile phones is a great move which will boost the ‘Make in India’ campaign by promoting local manufacturing. The government’s focus on the new digital technologies will help lead to a empowered digital society and a knowledge economy”
Mr Aakrit Vaish, Founder & CEO, Haptik
Allocation of significant fund and announcing efforts to enhance research in disruptive technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT) and Robotics implies that the importance of adoption of such technologies has finally been taken into consideration by the government. With NITI Aayog to establish a national programme for artificial intelligence, this will not only significantly aid job creation but will also assist the government to move towards its Digital India vision.
Mr. Prabhakar Chaudhary, MD – HAL Robotics said,“Emphasizing
This year’s budget not only takes significant steps towards the Digital India vision but also towards inculcating the latest technologies like Artificial Intelligence for the national development. With NITI Aayog to establish a national programme for artificial intelligence, we look forward to supporting the nation with R&D support and more programmes like ABHED which is already assisting the Polices forces with AI capabilities. With the advent of new technologies and the Indian government being equally eager to adopt them, we strongly foresee the nation to be on the road to transformation and emerge as one of the leading Digital Nations on the world map.
Mr Rajeev Jain, Chief Financial Officer, Intex Technologies
“The Budget is focused towards increasing the personal disposable income in rural India and critical areas like education, health and infrastructure. This will further enhance the Make in India initiative of the Government in critical electronic industry particularly mobile, which is the key product of all the Government’s initiatives.
The Budget will spur the demand side of the economy by proposing various rural income enhancement schemes and reducing various pain areas of farmers. This will in turn rejuvenate the overall economic growth and spur demand for consumer electronics items like mobile phones and LED TVs thereby fuelling domestic businesses.
Intex has been known to cater to the developing Tier 2 and 3 cities since inception with its affordable consumer products and with the various rural personal disposable income enhancement schemes introduced in the budget, it will give a fillip to the sale and demand of electronic products.
The budget has further strengthened the Digital India initiative with the boost in increasing allocation for digital education through classrooms and continue with the further broadband penetration in the country.
I welcome government’s move to walk the talk on “Make in India” by increasing customs duty (to 20%) on the imported mobile phones and in PCBAs of accessories like batteries & chargers (15%), which will prove to be the big boost for localisation and setting up of a domestic component ecosystem. This is a big thumbs up to domestic players like Intex, which have been developing domestic capacities since long in electronics manufacturing.
The Budget has also increased duty on certain LED TV components such as LED panels (15%), which will push for developing capacities for local manufacturing of components. Such move encourage Intex that has been working on enhancing domestic capacities and has recently began its own Open Cell Manufacturing or LED Panel manufacturing to improve quality control and produce affordable quality products. It will encourage localisation in India with domestic manufacturers now implementing plans for local production capacity.
Overall, the budget is development oriented fulfilling the ease of doing business and ease of living for citizens.”
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