Budget Clearly Prioritises Job Creation, Rural Development With Allocations For Various Developmental Schemes

Union budget 2021 reactions from Supria Dhanda, Vice President and Country Manager for India

Budget 2021 announcement from Supria Dhanda, Vice President and Country Manager for India, Western Digital says, "We congratulate the Government’s initiative in amplifying Atmanirbhar Bharat. Wonderfully captured by our Finance Minister, Atmanirbhar Bharat is an expression of 130 crores Indians who have full confidence in their capabilities and skills. Digitisation, Skill Development and Job Creation are necessary to lead India towards high growth and be self-reliant. With rapid digitisation across industries over the last year, it is an opportune time to enhance our spending in training imparting digital skills to the youth. The budget clearly prioritises job creation and rural development with generous allocations for various developmental schemes. The focus around National Apprenticeship Training Scheme (NATS) with an allocation of INR 3,000 crores will empower a new wave of talent transformation and adequate employability opportunities for the Indian youth."

The Investment Outlay Towards Digital Payments Is A Welcome Step: Accenture India

Accenture Union Budget Reaction | Digital payments | 

Sonali Kulkarni, Lead – Financial Services, Accenture in India says, "Given below is a quote from Sonali Kulkarni, Lead – Financial Services, Accenture in India. At Accenture, Sonali leads the Financial Services business in India, with expertise in driving digital transformation and change projects to deliver business value and market impact for her clients. Basis the announcement of investment in Digital payments in the union budget today, please find below her thoughts:  

“The investment outlay towards digital payments is a welcome inclusion in the Union Budget. As per a recent Accenture research report, in India, 66.6 billion transactions worth USD 270.7 billion are expected to shift from cash to cards and digital payments by 2023. This shift is expected to intensify the existing competition in the Indian payments space and ultimately, enhance consumer experience and convenience. However, the exact nature of the scheme of the outlay and its implementation will be instrumental in its success.

We are seeing some notable innovation coming out of India’s fintech ecosystem – be it for digital payments, credit and risk management, underwriting or security. The initiative  to set up a fintech hub in Gujarat International Finance Tech-City (GIFT) will spur investment and innovation designed to help financial institutions not just meet compliance requirements but also build more-personalized customer products and services.

The move to set up a new asset reconstruction company and an asset management company to take care of stressed assets of banks will facilitate more options for banks to manage their NPAs as the true impact of the pandemic on NPAs is still unclear, and is expected to be fully known only by Q1 FY2022. The disinvestment and privatization related announcements related to the banking and insurance sectors will enable much needed capital infusion, and thereby, unlock new growth opportunities in FY 22.”

FADA Is Happy With The Much Awaited Scrappage Policy, Though Voluntary To Phase Out Old Vehicles

Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations (FADA) President Mr. Vinkesh Gulati on post budget reaction, “FADA is happy to note that the Hon’ble Finance Minister has finally announced the much awaited Scrappage Policy, though voluntary to phase out old vehicles. If we take 1990 as base year, there are approximately 37L CVs and 52L PVs eligible for voluntarily scrappage. As an estimate, 10% of CV and 5% of PV may still be plying on road. We still need to see the fine prints to access the kind of incentives which will be on offer and thus have a +ve effect on retail.

The 6,575 km Highway works proposed in Tamil Nadu, Kerala, West Bengal and Assam and another 19,500 km work for Bharat Mala project will definitely add fillip to much needed revival of Commercial Vehicles especially M&HCV segment.

Government’s reduction of customs duty on steel products to 7.5% will benefit Auto OEMs. We hence expect the benefit to trickle down to end customers thus helping in boosting of demand.

While we expected disposable income for individuals to increase with enhancement of IT slabs and depreciation benefit on vehicles for individuals, the same has not been taken into consideration.”

Greater Impetus To India’s Manufacturing Sector Is Indeed A Welcome Move: Dr. Keshab Panda

Union Budget 2021reactions from  Dr. Keshab Panda, CEO & MD, L&T Technology Services 

 Dr. Keshab Panda, CEO & MD, L&T Technology Services on the union Budget 2021 says, "The move to provide greater impetus to India’s manufacturing sector with outlay of almost Rs 2 trillion over the next five years is indeed a welcome move. We are hopeful, this will pave the way for enhanced adoption of digital engineering capabilities by domestic players, especially in the Industry 4.0 segment, to give them a global edge. With patents and innovations being at the core of our proposition as a pure-play engineering services provider, it was encouraging to know that Innovation and R&D was classified under the six pillars of focus for this year’s union budget. Unlike last year where explicit mention to initiatives such as National Mission on Quantum Computing and Technology were announced, one would have hoped that this year’s budget would have made provision for further focus."

Privatization Of PSBs Will Make Banking Sector More Agile And Oriented Towards Digital Growth

Lalit Mehta, Co-founder & CEO of Decimal Technologies from a fintech startup perspective:

“The budget presented seems to tick most boxes that India needs today post COVID. The promise on CAPEX should help in generating employment and also solve for long-term growth objectives. The six pillar focus will set the foundation for growth in coming years and make us better prepared for difficult situations like the COVID.

Some of the items that would see effect faster than others would be the FDI cap increase for Insurance, which will surely lead to a better capitalized Insurance sector and better reach of Insurance to the masses. Privatization of PSBs is a welcome move. It should help in make the banking sector more agile and oriented towards digital growth. This should lead to a few acquisitions of PSBs by private lenders. Hopefully, this will increase reach of the private sector to rural markets and will enable these markets with new products and a digital ecosystem. The fintech hub in the GIFT city is a great step towards enabling the fintech industry and shows the government's recognition of FinTech as a significant play in the financial sector. This should set the road for creation of the required regulations and frameworks for FinTech to work with conventional lenders and banks.

Fiscal deficit and achievement of divestment targets is something that needs to be under close watch. Any slippage on any of these can put a spanner in some other initiatives. Overall a positive budget that tries to balance between long term and immediate needs.”

Ashraf Rizvi, Founder & CEO of Digital Swiss Gold & Gilded, from a fintech, wealthtech and personal finance perspective:

“The Sensex witnessing a rise of over 4.5% signals the positive sentiment towards the Union Budget 2021. The gold and silver market received good news with a rationalization of import tariffs. The reduction in import duty on gold and other precious metals from 12.5 percent to 10 percent, will make jewelry cheaper in the domestic market for the buyer, as India continues to be the second-largest buyer of gold in the world. Moreover, the announcement of SEBI as the regulator for gold exchanges in India, is also a welcome move as it hints at deeper regulation of digital transactions of the yellow metal, which is a critical to earn consumer trust. Overall, a very positive shot in the arm for the Indian economy that looks to help India and its citizens recover in 2021 after a very difficult 2020. We at Digital Swiss Gold and Gilded will continue to ensure savings to our customers, so that more investors consider gold as a critical asset in their investment portfolio.”

Proposal To Reduce Margin Money Requirement From 25-15 Percent For Start-Ups Is Welcome Move

Quotes from start-up founder Rohit Gawli, Chief Executive Officer of Lokal Kitchen, a food-tech start-up focused on marketing, selling, and delivering home-cooked meals to households and offices. 

"Compliance requirements for start-ups consume a lot of time, effort and resources. By proposing to reduce the margin money requirement from 25% to 15% for start-ups, I think our Government is really trying to acknowledge the need of easing up compliances to encourage more activity in this ecosystem. Moreover, the Finance Minister has also proposed to revise definition under Companies Act, 2013 for small companies by increasing their threshold for capitalization to not exceeding Rs 50 lakh to not exceeding Rs 2 crore and turnover not exceeding Rs 2 crore to not exceeding Rs 20 crore. Currently, a firm can only be labelled as a start-up if their annual turnover cap is of Rs 100 crore. Increasing this threshold will allow exemptions to companies to over Rs 100 crore and hence supporting them in their growth story. It would encourage further expansion of companies like these."

"Lastly, I am truly thrilled about the new initiative ‘one man show’ wherein one-person companies will be allowed now. There will be no restriction on paid-up capital and turnover, this will definitely incentivise more incorporation of one-person companies. This will also enable non-resident Indians to incorporate one-person companies in India. This initiative is an example of how our government truly understands that India needs more such reforms to support its budding entrepreneurship eco system."

Agriculture Is Central Pillars Employing 15% Of India's Population

 
Post Budget Reaction from Nikhil Das, Founder, Agdhi 

The budget presented by Nirmala Sitharaman Ji today acknowledged the importance of agriculture in India’s economy as one of the central pillars employing 15% of the population. The central budget has shown confidence in the Minimum Support Price (MSP) regime and has upheld it for the farmer. The budget has promised 1.5 times MSP against the cost of production across all commodities. This is likely to bring in more innovation and adoption of technology in farming. Besides this, the budget has proposed an increase in agriculture credit.

The budget has realized the importance of start-ups in job creation and has extended the tax holiday for startups till March 2022. Already withering under the impact of the pandemic, the announcement has come as a big relief for startups that have become a critical employment generator with 4,70,000 jobs. Such measures are likely to boost sentiments across the board among potential entrepreneurs who are keen on entering the market with their business ideas.

These announcements in the budget were preceded by some welcome news for startups that included the broadening of the definition of startups and approval of the “Startup India Seed Fund Scheme” which comes with a corpus of Rs 945 crore. Overall, the budget has decided on supporting sectors that generate employment and seeks to revive an economy that has been severely hit by a global pandemic.