IT Industry Reacts to the Union Budget 2017


Budget 2017 is notable first for the fact that the government has maintained fiscal discipline and resisting the urge to come up with a populist budget given the upcoming elections in a number of states. So, this is not a ‘political’ budget, which was a big fear. Here are the reactions of the industry which has welcomed the budget and called it market-friendly.

Sunil Gupta, Founder & Director, ExportersIndia.com said, "With “Transform, energise, and clean India, that is Tech India” this budget has upped allocation for rural, agriculture and allied sectors by 24% has opened scope for increasing investments and yielding multiple benefits. The rapid growth in manufacturing sector is a good sign for overall economy. The new FDI policy is a welcome move. MSMEs and start ups have all the reasons to cheer with a dip in income tax to 25% for companies with an annual turnover of Rs.50 crore. Their grin grows wider with the FM proposing dip in bank lending rates. Incentives such as cash backs, referral schemes on BHIM app is all set to push the use of digital transactions which is yet another reason for MSMEs to move to online business models. The lowering of Income tax would also increase the spending capacity which will benefit the SMEs."

Akshay Dhoot, Head, Technology and Innovation, Videocon said, “We congratulate the Central Government for presenting a growth conducive budget.  The overall announcements seems like a cohesive push for holistic economic growth. We welcome initiatives that will give further boost to Make in India in order to make our country a hub of electronic and tech manufacturing. This has been taken care of with announcements like incentivising local electronic manufacturing up to Rs.745 crore by enhancing special policies like Modified Special Incentive Package Scheme (MSIPS) and Electronic Development Fund (EDF). This move would definitely give more sops to domestic mobile handset makers. India is one of the fastest growing mobile markets in the world and it would further get boost from newly formed trade infra export scheme."

Vivek Bhargava, CEO, DAN Performance Group said, “It’s a good budget overall and an extremely positive one for the digital industry. The strong focus on promoting a digital economy through various initiatives on the digital payments front will give a great impetus to the digital revolution that the country is currently undergoing. We are witnessing a significant increase in digital transactions owing to the cashless movement already, which is a huge indication of the times to come – largely in the benefit of the common man. It’s encouraging to see the government introduce movements like ‘Digi-gaav’ and others which will take digital technology to the rural areas where most of the country’s population is actually based. This aggressive digital push is sure to contribute substantially in making India one of the fastest growing economies in 2017.”

"In more specific terms, the biggest positive is the continued focus on infrastructure (roads, railway, housing, tier-II airports et al) in general and rural infrastructure (affordable homes, rural electrification) in particular, including e-infrastructure with the increased allocation to BharatNet (erstwhile NOFN). This will allow commercial activity to expand to the rural segment in a much more efficient manner, if the aim of achieving the broadband connectivity targets by 2018 is actually met," said Partha Iyengar, VP and Gartner Fellow, India.




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