Pre-Budget 2017 Expectations from The Anita Borg Institute (ABI) India

Anita Borg Institute (ABI) India seeks a budget that will continue to focus on entrepreneurship and economic growth. This is in turn will contribute to advancing and empowering women in technology.
ABI India offers customized programs to connect, inspire and guide women in technology. In the run-up to Budget 2017 ABI India looks forward to reforms and policies that will provide direct and indirect opportunities, for women across the technology sector.
Geetha Kannan, Managing Director of ABI India, underscored the importance of entrepreneurship in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector. “Last year the Sixth Economic Census released by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation had revealed that women constituted only 13.76% of the total 58.5 million entrepreneurs. Despite these low figures, ABI is hopeful that slowly but surely these numbers will improve in the coming years.”
“Unless the Government continues to step in and is highly committed to creating an ecosystem that nurtures and supports women entrepreneurs, all efforts such as ‘Startup India’, ‘Make in India’ and ‘Stand-Up India’ will not achieve the desired goalsthat implied empowerment and financial stability for women,”pointed out Geetha Kannan.
Geetha further added, “Our Finance Minister, Mr. Arun Jaitley in the previous budget had allocatedRs. 500 crore under the ‘Stand-Up India’ scheme, which among other categories included women entrepreneurs. This was a welcome move. We are keen that inthe coming budget the Government has plans to expand such schemes and finds more ways to ensure it is reaching the targeted beneficiaries. Women entrepreneurs in technology are on the rise and strong initiatives from the Government could really help in building successful businesses.”
“The Indian economy is anticipated to grow at a slower rate this year due to world politics, global financial fluctuations, demonetization and so on. We hope the Budget 2017 is able to resist all these and yet provide a stable socio-economic environment. Technology is undoubtedly at the core of most growth and development. Tax reforms, initiatives and policies to further boost the technology sector are always a priority on the budget wish-list,” said Geetha Kannan.