Snehashish Bhattacharjee, Global CEO and Co-Founder, Denave.
“The Union Budget 2022 provides an impetus for growth of the economy while simultaneously laying down a blueprint for the next 25 years of the country. The finance minister presented a forward-looking budget that focuses on a long-term plan for the country with digitization, urban development, and sustainability at its core. Overall digitization as a theme will be the backbone for new investments in sectors such as education, healthcare, banking, agriculture, and will help these sectors to be more efficient and competitive. Ease of doing business is high on government’s priority, with plans of launching ‘Ease of Doing Business 2.0’. Besides this, the government has also announced INR 6000 crore programme to support MSMEs over the next five years. The increased focus on employability and e-skilling will help the MSME sector and revive industrial activity. The budget has largely focused on a slew of tangible reforms whilst increasing investments in infrastructure, MSME and startup development coupled with impetus given to certain sunrise sectors such as logistics, digital banking & finance and technology (with 5G rollout) reiterate India’s ambition for all-inclusive, sustainable and futuristic USD5 trillion economy. While detailed implementation of all these schemes is yet to be seen, these changes would go long way in not only in boosting Indian economy but will also making the country a globally competitive market.”
Suman Reddy, Managing Director and Country Head, Pegasystems India
“The Union Budget for 2022 laid the foundation for a growth-supportive plan as the nation commences its exit from a pandemic-induced slump. India’s growth is highest among all major economies, and we are in a strong position to withstand challenges. With a keen focus on health, education and startups, we are truly on our way to encouraging further digital adoption, particularly in semi-urban and rural markets.
I am delighted with the focus of Budget 2022 on digital and technology. It is a forward-looking blueprint of India’s resilience, capabilities, and determination. The Indian tech startup space continues to witness steady growth, accounting for 70 unicorns with most of them in the IT/knowledge-based sectors. The provisions outlined in this year’s Budget will provide them a game-changing economic transformation opportunity. Additionally, the framework outlined for citizens to skill, reskill or upskill through online training will open up a sophisticated pipeline of jobs and entrepreneurial opportunities. The introduction of central bank digital currency will boost the digital economy and will hugely benefit the Fintech ecosystem. With setting up of 75 digital banking units India is set to become a robust digital economy in the next two years.
The ongoing race to deploy 5G will be crucial in addressing and streamlining the avalanche of data and the multitudes of IoT connections that will power the smart cities, utilities, education, healthcare, transportation, and enterprise needs of today and tomorrow. We are truly on our way to building an open, digital and inclusive India within the next 25 years.”
Krupal Parchure Head Fintech & Payment Solutions, MYn
I believe the budget 2022 is an amazing take by the government. They have covered most of the key focus areas and have announced some very calculated measures and policies. Like, for MYn, an app that works in the social media space, E-registrations for content developers was one big highlight of Budget 2022. This will give a proper definition and recognition to the content creation professionals. Another landmark achievement would be the introduction of digital currency. It decreases the dependency on cash, transactional & settlement costs. It opens up regulated & legal tender-based payments as well.
Government has also given easy access to credit for MSME sector, which is in line with RBI’s decision to have an Account Aggregator framework. This will narrow the credit gap that exists for the MSMEs and will democratise credit.
However, there are many areas that are not aligned well.
For example, Budget 2022 promotes gaming platforms, drones for crop digitization & land records, e-passports and open platforms for health services which leads the path for Digital India. But it arises the question- will a citizen’s health records be exposed to big tech? The fact is these initiatives need a very strong data privacy setup and Indian data privacy laws need clarity. So, Is India ready to take data privacy seriously now?
Another achievement in this year’s budget is taxation of crypto currency and NFT, as digital currency has always been in the grey area. However, there are no operational guidelines, nor regulation around crypto and NFT. So how is the government talking about taxation first, without a clear policy on operating it?
Overall, the Budget 2022 fuels the digital growth of the nation and we hope the government will take proper measures in the wake of the new initiatives.
Venkatraman Narayanan, Managing Director & CFO, Happiest Minds Technologies
“A capex heavy, investment push and demand generating budget. I expect the private sector to more than match the capital spend of the Government thus supporting GDP growth of 9% plus, leaving enough headroom for expenditure on farms, health, education and other social sectors. The theme of continued ease of doing business, consistency and stability in tax rates, rebates, push to further digitise the economy, issue of RBI backed digital currency, legitimising digital assets, etc. seem to aid and support the all and in specific the IT Industry which is expected by NASSCOM to grow to become $350 billion in size in 5 years. In all sounds like a ‘financial budget’ of the Country”.
Sushant Gupta, Founder & CEO of SG Analytics
The Union budget 2022 is certainly growth-oriented & futuristic as it covers different facets of technology and embraces digital adoption widely. Whether it is the introduction of a New Digital Rupee or Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), legitimizing private cryptocurrencies & NFT (with 30% tax imposition on virtual assets), Digital Universities, or Digitization of Post Offices, the list is ambitious and futuristic. The thrust and focus on digital technology are certainly welcomed and appreciated.
Also, very timely and heartening is the focus on inclusive development, energy transition, and climate action as three of the four pillars of development. I wholeheartedly welcome the decision regarding the provision of green jobs and the acknowledgment of new-age entrepreneurship and its drivers.
Anshuman Rai, Area Vice President, India, and South Asia, Commvault
“The Budget 2022 is a futuristic step taken by the government to complement nation’s macro-growth encompassing digital economy, tech-enabled development, and inclusive sustainable actions.
The announcement of data centres being awarded an infrastructure status is truly commendable as this move will be a major thrust to data localization. The new status will enable the data centre sector to get credit at competitive rates and on a long-term basis with enhanced limits. This move will also be a catalyst in realizing India’s vision of attaining the position of a global data centre hub.
The establishment of an open national digital health ecosystem, inclusive core financial approach, and digital currency will be instrumental in bridging the digital gap and bolster the Digital India vision further. With an increased focus on digital ecosystem for skilling, through API-based skill credentials and digital universities, we will see a talent surge that is equipped for the jobs of the future. The initiatives for telecom services and modernization for agri sector through land record digitization will be critical in modernizing and broadening the scope of data generation, management, and protection.
All these measures will, ultimately, result in a massive amount of data generation which will drive the demand for a robust and unified data management and protection technology further.”
Mar Tech
Robin Das, Co-Founder & CEO of BrandIntelle Services Pvt. Ltd.
“Indian Fin Min’s shortest budget address ever is taxpayer friendly, entrepreneur friendly, investor friendly measures, Web 3.0 friendly, tourism friendly & organic-farming friendly.
Investors & Startups: Long term capital gains capped at 15% will encourage startup founders & investors while we get set for the digital Indian.
Web 3.0: Rupee based on block chain technology & crypto currency & NFT to come under the 30% tax bracket.
Tourism: Govt. raises Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS) to Rs 5 Lakh crore to help small travel operators.”
Raushn Jha, Founder & CEO, PDP Media
“Budget 2022-23 has been in favour of startups. As our honorable FM has announced that due to Covid 19 pandemic Tax incentives will be provided for one more year to startups that had already been extended through 2023. As we fall under the same category and most of our clients are emerging startups it will be very considerate for us. As the startup sector has been playing a very crucial role for continuous growth in India’ economy for the past few years and with such support from the government, we hope in the coming time innovative startups will get recognised for their hard work and dedication. Also, promotion of startups to facilitate ‘Drone Shakti’ through varied applications is a great initiative by our government.”
Sumit Ghosh, CEO, Co-founder, Chingari
“We welcome the budget 2022. It is a promising budget to fulfill the dreams of thousands of crypto startups in India by opening various avenues of crypto assets. The announcements done by hon’ble finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman to introduce a 30% crypto tax is an encouraging development indicating the legalization of cryptocurrency in India. Further, the adoption of the digital rupee based on blockchain is a sign of the growth of making digital assets more accessible to the larger masses.
The budget is a gratitude towards the startup ecosystem by giving and accepting the new-age technologies and extension of tax incentives for startups respectively. In the near future, we expect the government will continue to support and encourage digital currencies.”
Health Tech Startup
Sanjeev Dahiwadkar, Founder & CEO of Cognota Healthcare:
“The Union Budget 2022 has taken many steps in putting healthcare at the centre of India’s approach to power its future growth. The proposal of launching a National Tele Mental Health Programme is a move in the right direction to provide better access to quality mental health counselling and care services. Proposal to create an open platform for the National Digital Health Ecosystem is also a welcome move. However, with the non-reduction of the GST on medical devices and the lack of tax rationalisation of healthcare services, the government has missed an opportunity to make healthcare affordable for billions of citizens. The pandemic has put healthcare at a pivotal position and the government should provide the right policy environment in the form of tax concessions, investment-friendly regulations till the society develops collective skills to deal with the new normal,” said Sanjeev Dahiwadkar, Founder & CEO of Cognota Healthcare
Artificial Intelligence
Sarvagya Mishra, Co-founder & Director, SuperBot (PinnacleWorks)
“The government has insisted on the development of digital infrastructure. Especially, in the education sector, the government has realised the need for a nationwide eVidya programme and digital university. This also opens prospects for new age tech startups to collaborate and contribute in establishing a robust digital infrastructure along with the government. New businesses have been leveraging technologies like AI, machine learning and data analytics, and have presented successful implications which might come handy in enabling the national education projects.”
Layak Singh, Founder & CEO, Artivatic.AI
FM Nirmala Sitharaman’s Union Budget 2022-23 is a rock-solid budget that takes a future-ready strong pro-start-up, pro-technology and green energy stand. No wonder it estimates India’s GDP to grow at about 9.27%. The Budget takes the strong position the nation is poised in despite the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic due to a successful vaccination campaign, and takes it that much ahead at the macro level. The Gati Shakti masterplan shows a constructive plan for world-class infrastructure and the PLI Scheme to generate at least 60 lakh new jobs over a 5-year period is another welcome move. The initiatives announced by the honourable finance minister will aid economic recovery as it strongly promotes & supports technology and startups, this will definitely boost InsurTech Startups which is still a niche industry and open development opportunities for the sector. The ramp-up of capital expenditure by 35.40% to Rs. 7.50 lakh crore from the earlier Rs. 5.54 lakh crore slab as well as upgrade to the credit guarantee trust for micro and small enterprises with the necessary fund injection, adding approximately an additional Rs. 2 lakh crore in MSME’s bounty, are signs of the government loosening their purse strings for the needy sector and would help SMEs & MSMEs to go for business insurance. The promise of the Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme to extend up to March 2023 with a revamped guaranteed cover of the scheme has been expanded by Rs 50,000 crore is also encouraging. Setting up a fund through NABARD that comprises blended capital with the aim to facilitate finance start-ups in the sectors of agriculture and rural enterprises, is another interesting welcome move.
