CP Gurnani, MD & CEO, Tech Mahindra
“The budget truly echoes India’s vision towards inclusive development and building a truly ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ by providing a blueprint for the economy over ‘Amrit Kal’ from India at 75 to India at 100. FM’s key announcements on blockchain and setting up e-passports with futuristic technologies are a step in the right direction to help India emerge as a global technology leader. The focus on innovation and R&D (Research and Development) with an emphasis on strengthening talent capacity through STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) universities and skilling courses in IIT’s will enable India to become a global hub for skilled talent. Overall, Budget 2022 promises to provide the much-needed impetus to sustain India’s economic and digital growth.”
Rajiv Bhalla, MD, Barco India
The emphasis on growth, digitization and being future ready outlines the government’s commitment to cohesive development and ‘Make in India’. Focus on Gati Shakti masterplan, youth, women, job creation, technology and infrastructure development among others will drive India’s Amrit Kal, journey from 75 to 100 years as a democracy. India has the potential to be a world-class infrastructure centre, and the Budget has provided enough impetus to propel the same. In addition, we expect the digital ecosystem for skilling will boost human capital and empower industries significantly.
A Gururaj, MD, Optiemus Electronics
“The industry has been completely galvanized under the pioneering initiative of PLI scheme, with Hon’ble FM today stating that it has potential to create 60 Lakh new jobs and additional production of 30 lakh crores. This is also a clarion call to the industry to work much harder in the years to come to make it a reality. On a macro level, the scheme around design-led manufacturing as part of the PLI scheme would fasten the development of the ecosystem, and also changes in customs duty will drive greater domestic value addition in Electronics manufacturing in the country, which has grown rapidly in the last few years.”
Agendra Kumar, Managing Director, Esri India
Union Budget 2022 has announced the PM Gati Shakti program as one of the priority areas of the government. Seven engines of the PM Gati Shakti initiative are roads, railways, airports, ports, mass transport, waterways and logistics infra. As the Indian economy moves towards strengthening these initiatives, geospatial technology will gain more prominence in the process. As shared by the Hon’ble Finance Minister, the Gati Shakti program would involve huge investments in construction of about 25,000 Kms of highways, multimodal transport, and modernization of land records. These are welcome steps, and GIS and other geospatial technologies will facilitate efficient implementation of these schemes. With the launch of Jal Jeevan Mission (Urban), the government is aiming at universal water supply in all 4,378 Urban Local Bodies with 2.86 crores household tap connections, as well as liquid waste management in 500 AMRUT cities. GIS based water distribution network planning, execution and operations will go a long way in bringing these plans to fruition more quickly and efficiently.”
Vikram Kumar, Co-founder, MyTat( Skilling Startup) – “Budget 2022 gave a major and much needed thrust to digital skilling with initiatives like Digital DESH. Emphasis on a digital ecosystem for skilling and livelihood points to the much-needed market oriented digital skills development”.
Harsha Solanki, Managing Director – India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka, Infobip
Hemant Tiwari, Managing Director, Hitachi Vantara, India
“With the aim of setting up 75 digital banking units in 75 districts of the country by scheduled commercial banks, there is a clear push to promote digital banking across the country, especially in the rural and semi urban areas. This initiative combined with initiatives to launch a digital rupee and integrating 100% of the post offices across India with the core banking system, thus enabling online fund transfer between post office accounts and bank accounts is a significant step forward for financial inclusion and a thriving digital economy in India for the years to come.”
S Durgaprasad, Co-Founder, Director and Group CEO, Bahwan CyberTek Group
“It is clear that technology will be a force multiplier in the coming months. And this year’s budget reiterates the government’s strong reliance on Digital for economic growth. The announcement of a Digital University, a National Digital Health Ecosystem, 75 Digital Banking Units, e-passports, and the aspiration to ensure all villages have the same access to digital resources as urban areas indicate a blueprint for IT-driven comprehensive development.”
Nikhil Rathi, Founder and CEO, Web Werks
There is excellent scope for the IT sector, building on the past, to provide a stronger foundation for the future. The budget is sure to strengthen the foundation by infra status to data centers with a focus on gaming and tech, in addition to digital currency.
This budget further accelerates the Digital India push. Infra Status to data centers will provide further impetus to a fast-growing industry giving access to benefits like cheaper finance. Growing energy costs globally can be mitigated with — Focus on Green Clean energy and energy storage as infrastructure will make India a location that can build the backend to the data center industry even better. This helps set the stage to make India a data center Hub. Gaming, tech, and digital rupee will create more transactions, thus more data which in the country will further increase the need for data centers. It will also facilitate an increase in the timeline for Startups, as a foundation will further build for startups with the extension of benefits for another year, and with infrastructure getting a boost they can build on a sound foundation in India.
The tax exemption for start-ups and the introduction of digital rupee using blockchain technology provide a stimulus for innovation and highlights the country’s appetite for emerging technologies. I’m confident that this budget will pave the way for a digitally transformed India equipped with all the resources for sustainable development at scale.
Mughilan Thiru Ramasamy, CEO & Co-founder Skylark Drones
The union budget and the initiatives announced by the honourable Finance Minister continue to provide impetus to the growth of the drone industry in India. The introduction of drone shakti is a welcome move and will ensure business momentum and drive faster adoption of UAVs in the country. It is encouraging to see the government promoting Digital India and digitisation of various sectors through the integration of UAVs through varied applications and drones as a service. India with its vast natural resources spanning from agriculture, minerals, and great infrastructure is finally getting the much-required momentum to become digital.
The announcement to promote the use of ‘Kisan drones’ in the agricultural sector as part of the Budget for 2022-23 will enable the drone industry to collaborate with our farmers to improve operational efficiency and maximize profitability. This is a welcoming move and will make India’s agricultural sector future ready.
Today, both enterprises and the government are realising the economic and social opportunities that India’s widespread and dispersed geospatial assets can provide to the nation. Becoming Digital First and creating a digital repository of India, will enable faster growth of our economy and the much-needed transparency thereby improved governance. UAVs offer an ideal compromise between scalability, economic feasibility, immunity to error, and productivity. The faster adoption of UAVs is therefore critical to realise the potential of these geospatial assets.
Sudhindra Holla, Director, Axis Communications, India & SAARC
“With the goal to complement macro-growth with micro-all-inclusive welfare and tech-enabled development, we are optimistic that these measures will further strengthen India’s power as a global digital hub. With technology serving as the pivot in this year’s budget, there will be a renewed focus on the criticality of a robust cybersecurity solution.
The seven engines of the PM Gati Shakti masterplan encompassing the launch of 400 new-generation Vande Bharat trains and the national highway network will be key drivers in the demand for top notch surveillance solutions. We are upbeat on the slew of recommendations for urban infrastructure development as this will be an impetus for not only generating employment but also reinvigorate the development of smart cities. The rollout of 5G services will further the potential of technology and aid in promoting R&D and commercialization of tech and solutions.
The launch of the National Ropeways Development Programme will be a major thrust to the tourism sector and the vision towards developing a self-reliant defence sector will additionally boost the demand of hi-tech surveillance and security solutions.”
