Industry reactions on Union Budget (Part-17)

Rahul Garg, Founder & CEO, Moglix & Credlix 
“It’s encouraging to see that despite the global recessionary waves, India's economy is growing. The Union budget 2023–24 builds upon the foundation established by the previous budget, with a vision of a prosperous, inclusive India where the fruits of growth reach all sections. Overall, this budget continued focusing on promoting exports, boosting domestic manufacturing, enhancing domestic value addition, encouraging green energy and mobility, streamlining the supply chain, and providing economic support to MSMEs across the country. Lowered tax rate of 15% for new companies starting manufacturing activities by March 31, 2024, will act as a catalyst, driving the public-private partnership investment in infrastructure, including railways and roads. The thrust on manufacturing & infrastructure will enable the country to achieve the target of achieving a manufacturing potential to export goods worth $1 trillion by 2030. National Green Hydrogen Mission will facilitate the transition of the economy to low carbon intensity and reduce reliance on fossil fuel imports, thus contributing to green growth. According to our commitments at COP26 and COP27 on climate action, the Union Budget signaled the beginning of the decarbonization of India's inbound supply chain. The National Data Governance Policy will unleash innovation and research by start-ups and academia, enabling access to anonymous data. The Unified Skill India Digital Platform would facilitate demand-based formal skilling, employer linkage (including MSMEs). Revamped credit guarantee scheme for MSMEs to infuse Rs. 9000 crore into the corpus. The budget has brought about entrepreneur-friendly measures on the policy and legal fronts to drive operational excellence across sectors. Access to entrepreneurial initiatives to further bolster the economic and human resource foundation of the country will drive start-up ecosystem in the country.”

Pramod Ghadge, Co-Founder & CEO, Unbox Robotics
“New-age technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) have been playing a critical role in helping India and its businesses across different sectors leapfrog to global standards in innovation. The Budget prioritizes upskilling the country’s youth in courses like AI, robotics, etc., ensuring that the country is able to transition smoothly and quickly into Industry 4.0 in the next three years. As a company making AI and its applications work for India and across the world, we are excited to see the Union Budget 2023’s focus on skill development and setting up of Centres of Excellence for AI in the country to foster research & development, innovations and the overall growth of the ecosystem.”

Rohit Mali, Director, Firefly Fire Pumps
“We welcome the Union Budget presented today by the Indian Government. It is a highly supportive budget for the MSME sector, especially after the challenges faced by the sector during the last 2-3 years. The biggest support comes with the infusion of INR 9000 crores in revamped credit guarantee scheme for MSMEs. This will aid the existing MSMEs to grow their businesses at an exponential rate and encourage new businesses to enter the game.
With significant reforms announced today for the ease of doing business, owners of companies are secure & confident that these initiatives will in return provide a sense of surety for business owners. The Union Budget is progressive as the reforms safeguard the interests of MSMEs to ensure that the dues are cleared without delays.”
 

Mayank Arya, Co-founder at Yes Madam
"Startups in India demand ease of doing business, and the Hon'ble FM has taken the same into consideration by reducing more than 39,000 compliances and decriminalizing 3,400 legal provisions. This will not only provide relief to the existing entrepreneurs but will also encourage the aspiring ones. Additionally, the persisting skill gap in youth is something that is faced in every organization. This implicates a direct impact on the overall employment rate in the country. Therefore, the proposals such as Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) 4.0 and setting up of 30 Skill India international centres announced in the budget are more relevant now than ever."

Kuldeep Malhotra, Dy. Managing Director, Konica Minolta Business Solutions India Pvt Ltd  
“We are delighted to have a Union Budget that focuses on introducing new technologies on a wide scale. Since our youth is the backbone of our economy, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman talked about training millions of youth within a period of the next three years under the government's Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana 4.0. The scheme will also cover new-age courses for Industry 4.0, like coding, AI, robotics, mechatronics, IOT, 3D printing, drones, and soft skills. These are the technologies that will assist businesses across multiple fields to function smoothly. Additionally, the decision to set up 30 Skill India International Centres will open the doors of international markets to Indian youth.
Furthermore, with Budget 2023, the government is taking its sustainability initiatives to new heights. Programs that promote green fuel, green energy, green farming, green mobility, green buildings, and green equipment, are the need of the hour. These green growth efforts help cut down the carbon intensity of the economy and provide large-scale green job opportunities.”

Shishir Jaipuria, Chairman, Seth Anandram Jaipuria Group of Educational Institutions, and Chairman of FICCI Arise 
“The Union Budget 2023-24 spells out progressive initiatives and reforms for the Indian education sector in many areas, including skill development, teacher training, future-readiness of learners, and greater accessibility of learning content. 
The most outstanding feature of the budget is the announcement of the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana 4.0 which will be focused on skill development of youth in not just the conventional domains, but also new-age disciplines like Artificial Intelligence, robotics, the internet of things and 3D printing. The Yojana will be an excellent catalyst for bringing skill development on par with academic excellence in the Indian education system by setting up 30 Skill India International Centres. It will also help to bring 20 million out-of-school children back into mainstream education. At the same time, the proposal of setting up three centres of excellence for Artificial Intelligence in educational institutions is a welcome move towards creating human resources with competencies to leverage new technologies for innovations in different sectors. Additionally, the decision to extend stipend to 47 lakh youth under the National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme through direct transfer benefit will help to boost employability and practical application of skills.  
The Union Budget addresses the important issue of professional development and recruitment of teachers with the announcement of the District Institutes of Education and Training and the proposal to recruit over 38,800 teachers in Eklavya model residential schools.  
The vision of the National Education Policy 2020 to make education equitable and inclusive will be furthered with the setting up of the National Digital Library for children and adolescents along with physical libraries at panchayats and wards, as recommended in the budget. This move shall make learning content accessible to millions of needy learners across the country.  
All in all, this is a balanced budget which meets our expectation to strengthen the underpinnings of the Indian education sector for realizing the country’s demographic dividend and creating a knowledge-based economy.” 

 
Prof Arvind Chaturvedi (Pro Vice Chancellor, IILM University, Gurugram) 
“An 8% increase in allocation to education sector (over 2022-23) is not sufficient. Higher allocation was expected this year. 
Educationists were expecting a larger increase to meet the NEP target of 6% of GDP. In that sense it is disappointing. 
However, the focus of FM budget proposals has been on IT education and skill development, which is welcome. 
The highlights which India should appreciate are: 
Target of training 47 lakh youths in 3 years under PMKVY 4.0,national apprentice Scheme, on the job training in partnership with industry in coding /IOT/Drones/ Mechatronics/AI is indeed welcome as it will create a huge technically qualified manpower and India will be an IT super power. 5G centres in 100 engineering colleges is appreciated. 
Opening of libraries, both digital and physical, in rural areas will go a long way in increasing the literacy levels as well as enrolment ratio in rural India.  
Budget focus on primary teachers training, recruitment of 38000 teacher for Eklavya schools, opening of 157 nursing colleges along with existing medical colleges is appreciated as a step in right direction.  
I specially welcome plan to convert DIETs (District Institutes of Education & Training) into vibrant institutes of excellence. 
India now has more private universities than the state & central universities and therefore liberal grants should have been announced for private education providers in higher education sector. 
In a related sector, the announcement of National Data Governance is a welcome step.”

 
Radhika Shrivastava, Executive Director, FIIB (Fortune institute of International Business) 
“The announcement to strengthen teacher training via innovative pedagogy, curriculum transaction, continuous professional development, integration of ICT, and much more is a commendable initiative by the honorable Finance Minister to enhance the delivery of education and the implementation of technology in India's education segment.  
Also, the decision to transform the District Institutes of Education and Training (DIET) into vibrant institutes of excellence and establish a National Digital Library for children and adolescents will serve as a stepping stone for improving foundational literacy and numeracy among children.   
Facilitating states to establish physical libraries at the panchayat levels and offer access to national digital library resources will further create a conducive learning environment and nurture communication and creative skills among students. Moreover, the decision to recruit 38,000 teachers and support staff for 740 Eklavya Model Residential Schools is a thoughtful decision to move towards the uniform quality of education across the country.  
Overall, the Union Budget 2023 unveils some key actions to overcome the learning losses of the Covid-19 pandemic, fueling the digitization of education and driving uniform delivery of education in the country. These announcements are expected to fast-track the implementation of NEP 2020 and achieve its end objectives.” 
 
Rajkishan S.S, Ph.D. | Professor of Economics IILM University Greater Noida 
“The debate is on the fact whether the last major budget before elections has lived up to its expectations or not! This budget will be touted as one which has something to please everyone! From the impressive hike in infrastructure spending to the increase in the number of Eklavya Model Residential schools benefiting 3.5 lakh tribal students, the setting up of a National digital library for Kids and adolescents and skill India international centres, and the tax rebates to the middle class, industry and the rich, the budget proposals are attractive. The catch always lies in the intent and speed of implementation!”