Responses to Union Budget-Day Two

The FM, Nirmala Sitharaman presented the Union Budget 2023-4 on February 1. For detailed coverage, https://www.communicationstoday.co.in/fm-presents-union-budget-2023-24/.

Some more industry responses have been received:

“Budget for 2023-24 demonstrates confluence of development, in line with the holistic empowerment as a critical component of India’s future growth story. There is a welcome alignment between goals to modernize agriculture as well as developing 5G labs that focus on precision farming; similar focus on last-mile education & research on 5G use cases for smart classrooms signify astute convergence in the various outlays.

Sustained focus on the ease of doing business through an additional reduction in 39,000 compliances is a positive step toward attracting investments, and building on India’s enabling economic foundation.”
Sunil Mittal, Founder and Chairman, Bharti Enterprises

“The recent policy reforms have improved possibilities for the industry. Ease of doing business is really important. The government is doing to keep light-touch regulation that overtime is a right approach.”
Mats Granryd, director general, GSMA .

“We appreciate the government’s continuous focus on the technology sector with the Budget 2023-24. The introduction of three centres of excellence for artificial intelligence to enable ‘Make AI for India’ and ‘Make AI work for India’ is something to look forward to for the upcoming digital nation.

The initiatives outlined for skill development and research in cutting-edge fields like artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, and 5G, among others are encouraging for the IT industry.”
Vishal Agrawal, MD, Avaya

“The Budget offers a playing ground for the startup community as well, and has highlighted that India is the third largest ecosystem for startups.

Amidst the growing fear of slowdown and global recession, the Union Budget 2023 is growth-oriented and committed budget, that has boosted allocations across sectors.

Calling out the Indian economy as tech-driven, knowledge-based economy, the budget focuses on three key transformational trends that will help build India its competitive advantage – digital transformation, energy transformation, and supply chain resilience.

The Budget underscored India’s plan to become an engine for global growth and deploy digital as leading India’s development. It touched upon all the critical aspects required to position India as a leader in terms of digital offerings, along with a focus on talent and sustainability.

The creation of 5G labs will further help in opening newer avenues and opportunities, scaling up new business models and employment prospects. From Centres of Excellence for AI to National Data Governance Policy, Union Budget drives digital agenda.”
NASSCOM

“The government’s decision to remove import duty from the camera lens and its components will benefit mobile phone manufacturers in India, and it should be extended to all other electronic product segments that use camera modules, and electronic components.

Decision to remove import duty on the camera lens and its components will help mobile phone companies and electronic manufacturing services (EMS) companies shortlisted under the PLI scheme. Government should extend the benefit of importing camera lenses at nil customs duty to other product segments as well. It will help improve product quality as well as lowering the cost of products like CCTVs, laptops etc.

The extending benefit of the camera lens at nil import duty to other segments will be in line with the government vision to boost overall electronics production as well as export from India.

Overall, the budget gives a huge push for demand for technology products with capital expenditure of Rs 10 lakh crore, which includes major investments in the infrastructure sector. Now, technology has become centric in the development of all sectors. Therefore, demand for electronic products will also see a huge boost during the year.

This year’s budget is a strong effort to consolidate the Indian economy in post-pandemic dynamics, raising the personal tax exemption limit will certainly boost consumption and the electronics industry will surely benefit from it.”
Rajoo Goel, Secretary General, ELCINA

“The electronic sector will gain from the promotion of research and development in the budget.

All this will create demand for electronics hardware and create jobs as well in the electronics industry. Finance Minister has laid a lot of emphasis on skill development for green energy products, drones, robotics, and IoT. All these are positive developments for the electronics sector.

The 50-year loans to the state will help states like Uttar Pradesh that are creating an ecosystem for electronics manufacturing. Credit Guarantee Scheme for MSME has been further incentivised. MSMEs are driving major growth in the electronics sector. When MSMEs get credit guarantees without collaterals, then they will be able to invest more. Overall, the budget is very conducive to the development of the electronics sector.
Amrit Manwani, chairman and managing director, Sahasra Semiconductors

CT Bureau