Technology market reaction on Budget 2022-23: As Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday made an announcement outlining the economic growth for India over the next 25 years.
Here’s what the technology sector experts are saying about the Union Budget 2022:
Sanjay Motwani, Vice President, APAC, Legrand Data Center Solutions:
An infrastructure status for the data center industry means that data localization and affordability of high-end data centres will be more accessible now. Today’s announcement offers a lot of encouragement to the continuous efforts of the data centre industry in India. For Indian businesses, it offers a chance to avail long term data center services at lower investment rates.
It will also empower the sector to hire more skilled talent and make our country a global hub for data centers. This initiative is what we had been hoping for, and we are absolutely elated that it’s coming to fruition through the efforts of the central government and the data center sector collectively.
Anubhav Bajpai, Founder, VouchPro:
India has been at the forefront of digital adoption and this budget is more than welcoming of web 3.0, cutting edge innovations like AI, VR/AR etc. India has jumped ahead in virtual reality with the establishment of a task force for Animation, Visual Effects, Gaming, and Comic industries. They will guide the development of virtual assets that are key to New India’s movement into the Metaverse. We welcome these announcements and look forward to setting a place of leadership for India in Web 3.0.
Dr Mukesh Kwatra, founder of Smiling Tree:
FM Nirmala Sitharaman in her Budget 2022 speech laid impetus on the importance of digital education and announced a host of measures for the Covid-19 pandemic-hit education sector. ITIs will realign the vocational courses as per the industry requirements. Focus on developing skills in the modern day technology like Artificial Intelligence etc will help in coping up with industry demand. 23 National Tele mental health centres is a good initiative towards the awareness of mental health, will help people to recover from stress and anxiety due to the Pandemic and lockdowns..
It is heartening to see that there is a huge thrust on digital education, development of skills for modern technology, smart agri-education and rural educational reforms. Technology if used prudently in education can have profound positive implications.
Agri-education not only teaches learners how to be farmers, but also helps generate more scientists, nutritionists, biologists and more. A combo of academic knowledge and practical on field farming experiences is extremely beneficial to lay a good foundation for educated farmers and the community at large. Encouraging AI and drone technology is another step in the right direction. Drones can be effectively used in the agriculture sector, defense, entertainment, logistics and many more fields.
Vikram Singh, CEO & Founder, TechEagle:
We are happy to see, finally with Budget 2022, Govt. shows focus around Drones for masses in agriculture, healthcare and logistics applications with the announcement of following things in Budget 2022 by FM :
Kisan Drones: It will promote use of Drones for crop assessment, digitization of land records, spraying of insecticides, and nutrients. Kisan Drones, in my opinion, should involve improving healthcare access in rural and remote India with the help of drone-based medical item delivery, as well as delivering agricultural products from farm to warehouse for better pricing and transportation. This will aid in the mainstream adoption of drone technology.
Drone Shakti: Start-ups will be promoted to facilitate ‘Drone Shakti’ through varied applications like Healthcare Drone Delivery, Air Taxis, Drone based on-demand delivery of parcels, Agriculture, Survey, Mapping etc. Drone-as-a-Service (DAAS) is a business concept that is comparable to the commonly used term Software as a Service (SaaS) (Saas).
Drone-as-a-service eliminates the need for government departments to purchase items and instead rents them out as a service, allowing them to become asset light and take advantage of the greatest available capability and technology on the market. As technology advances on a daily basis, government departments’ assets are becoming increasingly cluttered with old technology. As a result, it’s a win-win situation for both the government and drone start-ups.
Ganesh Gopalan, Co-founder and CEO, Gnani.ai:
It is a progressive budget, and we are glad that the government has been concentrating efforts to promote next-gen technologies, such as AI, Deep Tech, Agritech, and others. These technologies have immense potential and will provide strategic impetus to various industries by solving complex business challenges.”
Venus Dhuria, Co-founder, AppyHigh:
We are excited to see the importance being given to animation, gaming with a task force being set up as announced in the budget. Given we are now looking at the 4th industrial revolution – the transformation of the internet from Web 2.0 to Web 3.0; animation, visual effects and gaming will play a crucial role (in the world of Metaverse, Virtual Reality and NFTs) and hence government impetus in this direction is a great boost. In this budget, the government has definitely shown a great intent to push skill development through private and public partnerships.
We have a talented and youthful workforce, as well as educational institutions imparting knowledge in these disciplines. Internet availability in India is growing faster than most of the countries, people are becoming digitally savvy. To top it all, our potential in internet and technology domains & also the challenges of over-dependence on China – is attracting billions of dollars of investments as we have seen in the last two years. A focussed effort from the government in these areas will only accelerate India’s position as a leader in the future of the internet.
Ranjan Kumar, Founder & CEO, Entropik Tech:
It’s encouraging to witness that India is becoming a technology-led economy and the Union Budget 2022-23 proves this further. We are glad that the budget plans focused on the growth of the Indian start-ups ecosystem and adoption of technology is promoted across sectors. Focus on sunrise sectors and supportive policies for AI, Geospatial Systems and Drones, Genomics and Pharmaceuticals, etc. can assist sustainable development at a larger scale. Budget investments in R&D to further technological breakthroughs will definitely accelerate the digital economy. Furthermore, tax holiday for another year would definitely help upcoming startups and provide a much-needed boost.”
Deepak Mittal, CEO and Co-Founder, TO THE NEW:
The government’s unprecedented commitment to technology innovation and adoption in this union budget is highly encouraging. Breakthrough developments and futuristic technology such as the introduction of digital currency, the rollout of 5G within FY22-23, and e-passports using embedded chips are exciting for the country’s future. Among the measures announced, the budget highlights special incentives to startups and the launch of a progressive, new portal encouraging a digital ecosystem for skilling and upskilling. These initiatives will serve as a successful catalyst for the country’s economic growth.
Rashi Gupta, Chief Data Scientist & Co-Founder, Rezo.ai:
Startup incentives, as well as notable and progressive skilling and upskilling initiatives, will undoubtedly serve as a successful catalyst for the country’s economic growth. In this union budget, the government has made an unprecedented commitment to technology innovation and adoption.
The introduction of digital currency, the rollout of 5G in FY22-23, and the use of embedded chips and futuristic technology in e-passports are all exciting developments for the country’s future. Though we anticipate the government focusing further on launching more incubator and accelerator programs to assist businesses across the country.
Akarsh Singh, CEO and Co-Founder, TSAARO:
The government’s intent to impart critical-thinking skills and creativity through vocational courses is a welcome move. With data privacy becoming a major concern amidst rising digital transformation, there is a dire need to prepare students and professionals with these capabilities. They need to know about privacy, identity theft, or cyberbullying in the digital age. We were expecting the government to put more emphasis on this subject, especially when the Data Protection Bill is under consideration this year.
Nevertheless, moving forward, we urge the government to introduce a few initiatives that create more awareness around the importance of data privacy from an early stage. This could be made part of the curriculum on the TV channels being introduced for online education or even be considered as an important aspect in the framework of the digital university that the government plans to set up.
Mohit Marwah, Co-founder & Co-CEO, AAFT Online:
We believe that, with the future of education being hybrid, edtech companies like ours can be great allies of the government and the education ecosystem as a whole. Technological innovations can magnify government spending by a factor of ten and speed up the implementation of NEP goals, including tracking and improving students’ learning outcomes and overall progress. The goal is to upskill students in all aspects of their lives through innovative and creative courses.