Budget 2023 Expectations: India is emerging as one of the strongest business environments in the world, and our entrepreneurial spirit is one of our greatest strengths. India’s startup ecosystem, being the third-largest and one of the fastest-growing has become integral to the country’s economy and overall development. Startups play an important role in the creation of jobs throughout India, in addition to bringing a plethora of disruptive inventions to market. Startups focused on expanding their operations create the majority of new jobs in every state of the country and in every industry.
India is attempting to seed and grow several new industries such as electronics, semiconductors, manufacturing, and renewables in order to further assist small businesses and empower entrepreneurs. It is critical for the country's success to attract and incentivize entrepreneurs and investors to participate in and drive growth in these new-age industries. Thus the Union Budget’23 is being eyed by several leaders from the industry for what it has to offer this year. Among the few expectations and viewpoint that industry professionals put forth from the budget include:
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As per Ridhima Kansal, Director, Rosemoore, “The Indian start-up ecosystem is no more just a peripheral entity but is becoming the focal point of the overall India Inc. Today India is home to 3rd highest number of start-ups in the world after the USA & China. In the present Budget, it is important for the government to take prudent steps to help start-ups. There is a pressing need for a separate taxation system for start-ups which can be extended to PE players, VCs, etc. Likewise, the government should help Indian start-ups to get listed on international bourses as well. This will help them get access to easy and smooth capital inflow.”
“This funding freeze occurred at a time when India was vying to become the world's next startup capital. The question now is whether the Budget for 2023-24 will provide clarification on these policies to encourage startup investment. Promoting entrepreneurship by funding startups with high growth potential through government programmes may also become a reality soon. Entrepreneurial education with the goal of improving employability through the transfer of labor-market-valued skill sets may also be on the Government's agenda.”, says Delphin Varghese, Co-Founder & Chief Business Officer, Adcounty Media.
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Stating some records, Lokendra Singh Ranawat, CEO, WoodenStreet stressed on the fact that the winter chill arrived far too early for Indian startups when startup funding went to an all-time low in the third quarter (July-September) of the previous fiscal year. According to the PwC report, startup funding in India was $2.7 billion across 205 deals, the lowest in the previous two fiscal years. This clearly reflects increased deal-making selectivity and a greater emphasis on investment profitability and growth.
Budget 2023-24 is expected to benefit taxpayers, with an emphasis on potential economic benefits. Furthermore, the service class can expect long-term benefits such as medical healthcare, pension allowance, post-retirement, maternity benefits, and so on in the upcoming budget. Furthermore, given that the Indian economy has begun to recover from the fiscal consequences of the pandemic crisis, the current government will focus on the main goal of planning a budget that promotes overall economic growth.Being from the tech sector, companies are anticipating the manufacturing space will be rewarded for bringing up new technologies and adopting sustainable business practices.
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Ashish Aggarwal, Director, Spacemantra stating his views said that the government has talked about allowing nationalised banks to use accumulated GST credit as leverage. Given the concerns about another pandemic threatening humanity, there is no better time to put this into action and bring in liquidity than now. This will benefit not only SMEs and startups, but it will also allow banks to deploy underutilised credit limits from the previous two budgets.A startup founders committee should be formed in order to build organised entrepreneurialism and finance education practises for universities, as well as to encourage the next generation of successful entrepreneurs.
All in all it is expected that the government takes a 360-degree view of the start-up community's requirements and moves forward with providing further thrust in developing an ecosystem that supports growth of the community.
