Union Budget 2020 is about to kick off.
Budget 2020 is just a few minutes away. People from different industries have a different prediction about what is going to change. The tech industry has a lot of expectation from this Union Budget 2020-21. Here's what some of the industry experts have to say about this year's Union Budget.
Commenting on the upcoming Budget 2020, Suganthi Shivkumar, Managing Director, ASEAN, India & Korea at Qlik, said, "The current government’s focus on aspects such as digitisation and data handling is fantastic and the IT industry has great expectations from the Union Budget 2020-21. We hope that the upcoming budget has provisions that can strengthen progressive initiatives such as ‘Make in India’, ‘Digital India’, and the ‘Smart Cities Mission’. Given how data and analytics is enabling organisations to bolster productivity through smarter, more effective work, the government must also look to incentivise data analytics and AI projects as well as introduce technology-friendly policies and better tax structures for the industry.”
“More importantly, it must look to increase the ease of starting-up a company, as it will help in creating more job opportunities for the country’s youth. The IT sector will continue to drive success for businesses across industries with our innovations while also creating new high-value jobs with evolved skillsets, including data literacy. We are hopeful that the budget announcement will help companies in this sector recover from the recent slowdown and optimally realise its growth potential to drive a large-scale transformation within the economy." - she added.
Cyberbit, Managing Director, India/South Asia & ASEAN, Mr. Rakesh Kharwal said, “The Digital India initiative has done a remarkable job and as Digital India 2.0 gets contemplated, the focus of the government should be to build superior trust in technology. We hope that this Union Budget will focus more on cybersecurity measures to protect the integrity of critical infrastructure for financial systems, public health, science, safety institutions, defense, aerospace, and intelligence agencies. We are anticipating additional budgetary allocation for the national cybersecurity programmers and at least 10% of the technology budget for cybersecurity initiatives.
He further added, "The government must also add stimulus to the market segment and the economy at large. Perhaps, a good way of doing it can be to include simulation-based cybersecurity training solutions like Cyber Range in the Skill India campaign. It will help in addressing the gap of 1 million professionals in the Indian cybersecurity industry while also aptly positioning the segment for the ripe global market. Apart from that, we expect that the budget will lay down a few more reforms to boost the service provider ecosystem in India”
Dr Pulkit Mathur,CEO at Queppelin (Augmented Reality/Mobile/Web), said, "Deep tech which includes Augmented Reality, Computer vision, Artificial Intelligence will play a big role across sectors in accelerating India's quest towards becoming a $5tn economy. Driving greater value as well as job-creation will both be impacted by it. We, therefore, would like to see the FM incentivise this sector. Deep tech should be a special focus separate from the IT/ITeS SEZ sunset clause which also should be extended beyond 2020."
Mr. Yogesh Bhatia, Founder, and MD, Detel said "In order to increase the penetration of LED Television in the country, we urge GOI to introduce entry-level GST Slab for TV i.e. 5%-10%. This move will certainly impact the sales of TVs in India with the affordability aspect and hence making the Television a mass product. Also, recently we have been invited at Government of Haryana's Pre-Budget Consultation 2020-21, where Honorable Haryana CM, Mr. Manohar Lal Khattar has acknowledge our suggestion for Budget 2020 and have also appreciated Detel's vision of connecting 40 crore Indians."
Mr. Rajan Navani, Vice Chairman & Managing Director, JetSynthesys, said, “The last Union Budget saw a slew of progressive and bold measures with the introduction of corporate taxation which brought India at par with some of the world’s leading economies. Amidst the current slowdown, for the upcoming Union Budget 2020 we look forward to similar pro-growth policies bolstering economic growth spurring consumption, reviving investment sentiment and strengthening job creation."
He further added, "With India poised to become $5 trillion economy, new age businesses will play a pivotal role in shaping the ‘New India of 2022’, with technology and innovation steering India on its growth trajectory. To accelerate India’s Digital India ambition, new age companies harnessing the power of Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, Robotics, etc. should be given an impetus to bridge the gap between technology and talent. On the back of these measures, India will reinforce its proposition as strong ‘Scale-up India’ powerhouse empowering large Indian companies to become global behemoths.”
Mr. Akshay Singhal, Founder, Log 9 materials, working in Nanotechnology Domain, "I think for startups there are already a lot of initiatives in action, improved mechanisms for the execution of those schemes is extremely important. However, I am more concerned about the economy as a whole. To boost economy my suggestion would be to increase spending under the Swachh Bharat Scheme may be via MNREGA to get Indian cities clean by employing the bottom of the pyramid."
Mr. Dhananjay Sharma, Director & CEO, Log 9 Spill said, "Cleantech companies around the country seeks special incentive programmes and larger tax benefits with aggressive government push for innovative cleantech solutions. So that this sector becomes more desirable and stable resulting in more investments in this sector. A conducive environment should be provided to encourage the creation of new cleantech businesses by easing regulatory and compliance policies for such companies."
Mr Aakrit Vaish, CEO, Haptik, said "Over the last few years, with a larger number of businesses incorporating emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, there has been a sharp rise in demand for curating specialized skill-sets. In this direction, the Government, in the soon-to-be-announced Budget 2020, should take measures which duly fill the severe need-gaps. Allotting funds towards the required training and technical know-how will be instrumental in empowering the deserving and well-minded youth of the country with industry-aligned germane skills like AI, IoT, Big Data and Robotics."
"Armed with the same spirit, we, at Haptik, are persistently enabling and inspiring developers and engineers to create next-generation conversational AI. We are thrilled to witness that our government has been exercising such massive efforts and resources to enhance the skills of our youth in innovative and disruptive avenues and are hopeful for this to be carried out with a more focused approach henceforth." - he added.
Mr. Abhishek Kumar, Regional Director, Onvu Learning, Onvu Tech, said, “India has today travelled a long way in terms of digitization. The most recent example comes in the form of superior road-rule compliance via an automated video surveillance system. This year, the government must aim to roll out similar measures for the Indian education sector. The optimal benefits of any new policy or initiative cannot be realized without appropriate scrutiny of them. Also, there is considerable disparity in the quality of education amongst private and government institutes. The introduction of automated video solutions will not only help resolve these issues, but also create superior productivity with automated attendance, classroom analysis, and provide bespoke teacher training, all of which will ultimately benefit student outcomes.”
Mr. Jagdish, CEO, Cloudwalker, said, "The Union Budget 2020 has a critical role to play in the Indian economy as it deals also with policies beyond merely financial budgets & impacts all of us. The current most important factor for the consumer products industry is reviving market demand and customer confidence to spend. Our expectations from the government are to look specifically into the decline in demand in the market & provide impetus to the market through rationalizing of GST rates which is one of the major reasons for sluggish demand. If the rates could move from 28% to a more market-friendly level of 12-18 % we would see a huge impact which will increase demand manifold & help govt to mop up more taxes as well as give a lifeline to the industry."
