While the Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has concluded the Budget 2016, there are mixed reactions. Here are some reactions from the IT industry to his announcements:
Ravinder P Singh, Director – Solutions Strategy & Business Development, IoT, Smart Cities & Digitization, Dell India explains, ““Today’s announcement of Digital Literacy Mission Scheme in rural areas is a key stepping stone to achieve next level of human capital transformation. India is going through a massive transformation with Smart Cities, Make in India and Digital India initiatives that will have far reaching impact in the growth of urban and rural India. Technology is not only the backbone for these initiatives but also a critical stakeholder for the success and sustainability of these programs. We welcome the government’s initiative as this will help in building digital infrastructure from the ground up that will help India grow much faster and better to enable economic growth. Dell being a global leader in ICT Technology and end user computing, we consider this as a good opportunity to work with both the government and private sector and be an active player in this journey. We are committed to support these initiatives by providing the next generation of technology solutions and being the digital architects for such programs”.
Koichiro Koide, MD, NEC India says, “The Union Budget 2016 has laid out big investments for the infrastructure sector which is a positive in the transformation of India envisaged by the NDA Government. We hope that the investment in infrastructure sector will also focus on execution of the smart and safe cities initiative.The statutory backing for Aadhaar will reduce leakage and ensure targeted disbursal of subsidies to the needy, eventually driving financial inclusion.Further, we hope that government’s ongoing reform programme will also result in the passing of the Goods and Services Tax bill soon, which in turn will contribute to the ease of doing business in India”.
Debjani Ghosh, President, MAIT says “The budget is strongly focused on bridging the divide between the ‘haves’ and ‘have not’s’, and good work by the Government in identifying the right priorities for focus under the 9 pillars called out by the FM. This budget, unlike any other, has not treated technology in isolation but integrated the effective use of technology across all the strategic imperatives in keeping with the intent of a Digital India. This budget has laid emphasis on governance reforms and ease of doing business, while highlighting the need for enhancing educational skills in order to make India a knowledge based economy. We are disappointed with announcement of the R&D incentives reducing because we believe that it is critical for India to be one of the most innovative countries in the world and this move could be detrimental in building India as an innovation hub. I strongly urge the government to re-consider this move, as any restrictions on the R&D ecosystem are likely to decelerate innovation in the country and restrain the ambitious Make in India and Digital India vision.”
Anwar Shirpurwala, Executive Director, MAIT says,”#Budget2016 has met our demands partially to help the Indian ICT industry move from assembly to next level of manufacturing, however, certain products have been missed out. We hope that preferential duty tariffs will be extended to include components and parts that go into the manufacture of laptops/notebooks in the near future. Having existing manufacturing facilities, This will help to unleash the full impact of ‘Make in India’ and realize the twin goals of higher domestic value addition and local employment generation. For the first time the government has clearly put an effort of creating an integrated approach by building connectivity through road, rail, air and waterways.”
Altaf Halde, Managing Director – South Asia, Kaspersky Lab says, “The overall Union Budget 2016-17 is encouraging for the common man, especially the tax relief in HRA. The announcement of Digital literacy scheme to be launched to cover 6 crore additional rural households is a welcome move. This will not only boost the fast adoption of digital technologies across the country but also encourage digital means to reach out to consumers and different markets. Start-ups getting 100% tax exemption for 3 years except MAT is again a good call taken by the government, as this will entice budding entrepreneurs to start their own business and since we are targeting this sector for our software business, it could prove beneficial for us as well. Besides, it will also help in creation of more and more jobs in the country. Overall, it’s a balanced and realistic budget in difficult times.”
Rahul Agarwal, MD, Lenovo India explains, “We are happy that the budget establishes a strong emphasis on technology in almost all the development areas highlighted by the Finance Minister. Technology has been recognized as an important enabler across initiatives ranging from agriculture to skill development to PDS to public procurement. Also, the announcements on the Rural Digital Literacy and the Digital Saksharta Abhiyan are positive strides to bolster the ‘Digital India’ vision. ‘Make in India’ and ‘Digital India’ remained important items on the agenda in the Budget this year. The changes in the customs and excise duty rates on components & sub-components reaffirm the ‘Make in India’ vision of the government. This will help in building a robust component ecosystem in the country, which is very important for becoming a manufacturing hub.
Shrikant Shitole, Managing Director, India, Symantec, “Enhanced investment in the budget for infrastructure, agriculture, rural and social sectors would support India’s continued journey of inclusive and sustainable growth. Protected and secure technology infrastructure fostering engendering trust will be critical to success of projects like e-marketplace, digital vaults for certificates and e-procurement. Legislative backing for Aadhaar should have requisite privacy provisions. Overall, a prudent budget, indeed!”– Shrikant Shitole, Managing Director, India, Symantec
Sunil Khanna, President and Managing Director of Emerson Network Power, India, “The Government has tried to keep a healthy balance between inclusive growth and fiscal consolidation amidst global volatility and additional burden on account of the 7th pay commission, OROP. With an important focus on digitation, the government has shown good intent in keeping up the momentum of the Make In India and Digital India Mission. The government has shifted its focus from large cities to rural areas showing a clear intent to uplift those who belong to the bottom of the pyramid, especially the agricultural sector and focus on creating skilled labor.”
Ramesh Mamgain, Area VP, Commvault India and SAARC explains, “The large budget outlay for infrastructure segment, smart cities, Digital India, education, healthcare, citizen service projects, insurance and Skill India will a give boost to modernisation programs. This will create a spinoff effect on an enterprise’s IT spend too. Besides, bank recapitalisation will help in improving the health of banks, and thereby allow them to finance old as well as new-age ventures.”
