Industry reactions on Union Budget (Part-12)

Vishal Bhatia, CFO, Balancehero India:
“The Union Budget presented by FM today is an exhaustive, progressive and inclusive one. At Balancehero, we are committed to ensuring financial inclusion for all and are pleased to see the government's increased allocation towards financial inclusion programs in the recent budget. We believe that this will further drive our mission to provide accessible and affordable financial services to all segments of the population.
Additionally, the reduced regulatory obligations and multiple KYC needs will give entities a much-needed breather. This will also encourage and ensure more people come under the umbrella of the formal financial system.
And the National Data Governance Policy will also offer access to anonymized data and help in a risk-based approach instead of a one size fits all approach that will better fit the needs of Digital India. The budget offers something for everyone and will pave the way for an India where financial inclusion is a reality for all citizens. “

Kanika Tekriwal, Founder and CEO, JetSetGo-Aviation 
"The Union Budget for FY24 has announced that 50 additional airports, aerodromes, helipads, and water routes will be built to spur greater connectivity across the country. This would be a good move in tackling the increasing passenger traffic volume and at the same time decongest the main airports. This infrastructure improvement will also give further impetus to business travel and tourism. With the increasing disposable income at the middle-class level, execution of these plans would further boost the air travel potential for them.
However, the sector was expecting much more from the Budget especially on the fuel price. Bringing aviation fuel under GST would have been a major step forward in reducing costs for operators like us. But the Budget has not touched upon this issue at all, in fact there is an increase by 4 percent in the jet fuel price which will further increase the operational cost for us."

Umesh Revankar, Executive Vice Chairman, Shriram Finance 
"The union budget 2023-24 is a growth oriented budget and the FM has checked all the boxes – from consumption to capex to spending to middle class to industry. The income tax benefits announced will boost purchasing power for middle-class consumers. It’s a capex-heavy budget, with an announced 33% increase in capex, which will boost infrastructure, logistics and the transportation business. The government’s focus on Ease of doing business and the expanded corpus for the credit guarantee will mean MSMEs have a lot to gain from this budget. Agriculture and rural development have been given detailed attention which should boost the rural economy and consumption. I believe the announcements made will trigger a pick-up in credit off take for small enterprises, the consumption-driven 2w business and lending to transportation."

Prem Kumar Vislawath, Co-founder, Marut Drones
“The Union Budget 2023 has laid focus on infrastructure spending, meeting its climate change commitments, agricultural, technology, farmers and startups, amongst others. With the announcement of “Agricultural Accelerator Fund” and focus on bringing technology to agriculture it will promote agricultural startups in the country and benefit the drone industry that is working on making agriculture more sustainable, cost effective, efficient and increase the yield for the farmers. We really hope this fund will be beneficial to us like the Drone Shakthi Initiative which was rolled out during budget 2022. 
We are positive that it will bring in modern technology to transform age old agricultural practices and will encourage more youth to adopt farming. We think the initiative’s  idea is to offer an innovative and affordable solutions to present day farmers where our Marut drone rightly fits in,  and  with the reduction of import duty on batteries we will be benefited to manufacture more affordable drones to empower the farmers, We are extremely happy with the introduction of PM Vikas Yojana 4.0 which encourages new age courses such as drone training, with this initiative the government has aligned to Marut drones vision of  making youth empowered towards adopting technological and IOT based solutions for age old problems, another highlight of the budget was to increase agriculture credit target to 20 lakh crores, this will encourage more people to adopt for Farming as it reduces the financial burden.
We are happy that the budget also focused on incentives for MSME’s by introducing benefit of Presumptive taxation for the companies with the turnover of 2 crore. And launching revamped credit guarantee scheme through infusion of 9000 crore form April 1st. we also believe that the budget was very beneficial for startups as it introduced tax benefits on their incorporation which is extended by year and the carry forward of losses to set off against future profits will now be allowed for 10 years instead of 7 years previously”.

Anand Kumar, Managing Director, Indian Immunologicals Ltd
“Some of the key announcements around the healthcare sector in the Union Budget 2023 will lead to long-term benefits. Making select ICMR labs available for research and development by public and private medical colleges, as well as private sector R&D teams, will play an instrumental role in improving healthcare facilities in the future. By establishing centers of excellence in artificial intelligence in educational institutions, we will also encourage leveraging new-age technologies for conducting interdisciplinary research, developing cutting-edge applications, and finding scalable solutions to health-related problems.
The establishment of 157 new nursing colleges has the potential to equip the healthcare industry with a skilled workforce to manage the future requirements of the growing population in the country.
 

Gautam Nimmagadda, Founder & CEO, Quixy
“The union budget is growth focused, a welcome announcement that liberally provides impetus to digital India. The government’s strides in advancing public and private digital services are a testimony to the rising global profile of the Indian Technology industry. The Indian government has recorded a phenomenal improvement in the Taxpayers Services owing to their digital adoption, where the average processing period has been reduced drastically in the past few years.
Furthermore, the 3 CoE’s for AI and the 100 labs for developing applications using 5G services will drive digitization and reignite employment potential in the tech ecosystem. Such measures demonstrate the multiplier impact of tech on India's strides onwards. Yet another stimulus was provided for E-Courts, a novel initiative undertaken to transform the Indian Judiciary by ICT enablement of Courts. A digitally driven government will expedite a digitally driven India.
Furthermore, the budget recorded a strong focus on the development of MSMEs and startups, with the extension of the carry forward of losses on change of shareholding of startups to 10 years of incorporation. This measure, coupled with the establishment of the National Data Governance Policy, will boost digital innovation empowered by ease of doing business.”

 
Richa Singh, Co-Founder & CEO, YourDOST
“As a healthcare industry stakeholder, I have mixed feelings about the Union Budget. Although several initiatives in the budget are laudable and oriented towards the vision of accelerating holistic growth, it does not hold a similar promise to the wellbeing industry.
While the establishment of nursing colleges sits on major potential for skilling the next generation of medical professionals, a similar commitment to the wellbeing industry has been overlooked. The previous budget justly recognized the growing significance of mental health today. Building on that momentum, additional incentives in the sphere would have accelerated the due importance that mental health and wellbeing deserves today.”

Karun Tadepalli, Co-Founder & CEO, byteXL
“The education sector has witnessed some of the announcements from a longer-term perspective. The increase of 8% allocation to higher education to INR 44,094 crores is a welcome move from the point of raising the employability quotient of students. This will be a key component in transforming the institutes to provide better education compatible with industry needs. New age courses for Industry 4.0 like coding, AI, robotics, mechatronics, IOT, 3D printing, drones, and soft skills under Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana 4.0 will help in skilling the students for global job opportunities making them career ready. Establishing a National Digital Library will enhance the culture of eLearning across the country, which will be a positive step towards a futuristic approach.”

 
Gusti Noria, President, The Hyderabad Public School Society
“This is overall a good consolidation budget. It is a good step by the FM to increase allocation for school education by 8% i.e. from Rs 63,449 crore (Budget Estimate) in 2022-23 to Rs 68,804 crore in 2023-24. The emphasis on establishing CoEs for artificial intelligence and also teachers’ training being revisited for better pedagogy and raising quality education, is a welcome step. The establishment of District Training Centres for educators along with the National Digital Library is yet another initiative that will be a boost for both public and private school education. The Skill India International Centres that are going to be set up across states will provide the right digital ecosystem for skilling and help foster national apprenticeship.
Applaud the initiative of the centre to recruit 38,800 teachers and support staff for the 740 Eklavya Model Residential Schools that will end up serving 3.5 lakh tribal students. Together these steps would surely pave an effective path to implement the National Education Policy for the “Amrit Peedhi”

Dr. V. Ramakantha, Director of Heartfulness Institute & , Ex Principal Chief Conservator of Forests in the Indian Forest Service
“The Union budget for 2023-23 has laid emphasis on coarse grains or millets for sustainable cultivation and I think it is very welcome given that it is aimed at raising the income levels of the farmers in arid regions. 2023 has also been recognized as the International Year of Millets by the United Nations at the request of the Government of India. It goes to show a level of rising awareness on the health benefits and consumption of millets. The 2023-24 Union Budget’s focus on millets will involve making India a global hub for millets and associated research and establishing the Indian Institute of Millet Research (IIMR) in Hyderabad as a centre of excellence for millets.
It might be interest to know that Heartfulness had joined hands with IIMR to establish an Experience Centre for Millets at Heartfulness because of the enormous health benefits and low glycemic index of millets besides helping the farmers raise sustainable livelihoods in the villages in the vicinity of Kanha Shanti Vanam. This was just a few months ago that we agreed on knowledge transfer and sharing of resources for the same. India being the largest producer with an average of 1239 kg/hg against a global average of 1229 kg/ha. And this is across production of jowar, raagi, bajra, ramdana and more. At Kanha we are growing a range of millets – and all through revolutionary and transformational means. This was once an arid land and today it’s bustling with a green cover with sustainable agriculture practices. We hope to raise more awareness and provide knowledge transfer to those who wish to adopt millets cultivation.”