Budget 2024 is round the corner. Although, it’s going to be an interim election year budget, the budget has raised lot of expectations in various industry corridors and the IT industry is no exception. The union budget, which is all set to be announced on 1st Feb 2024, is anxiously awaited by the captains of the IT Industry. For the benefit of our readers, we are presenting some of the important voices, reflecting the hopes and expectations of the industry from the upcoming budget.
“We are hopeful that the upcoming Interim Union Budget 2024 will continue this momentum. The strides being made through initiatives like ‘AI for India’ set the stage for the nation to lead the ongoing technology transformation.”
– Puneet Gupta, Vice President & Managing Director, NetApp India/SAARC
Here is what Puneet Gupta, Vice President & Managing Director, NetApp India/SAARC, expects from the upcoming budget:
“The AI push by Honorable Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in last year’s Budget was a visionary step which has helped place the country on the global AI map. We are hopeful that the upcoming Interim Union Budget 2024 will continue this momentum. The strides being made through initiatives like ‘AI for India’ set the stage for the nation to lead the ongoing technology transformation. What is also equally important is to safeguard the data required for this push towards an AI-driven nation. We look forward to diligent data governance and intelligent data infrastructure driven by AI. The budget presents an opportunity to streamline data access and address concerns on ethics.”
An increased investment in R&D will help create the foundation for innovation in key technologies such as AI/ML, IoT, Blockchain, and Cloud Computing. It will be good to see tech startups getting the necessary tax benefits and policy support that will encourage entrepreneurship. These initiatives will unleash India’s potential to develop new technologies and help achieve the government’s goal of a Viksit Bharat by 2047, sooner,” he adds.
