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What changes does the New Budget brings to technology world

On Tuesday, IT industry body Nasscom  said that the Union Budget 2022 sets the tone for India's 'techade' and establishing for the country as a global hub in terms of technology innovation. The IT body said while there were certain areas that were left unaddressed like enabling clarifications to allow units in SEZs flexibility to adopt hybrid work model or taxing employees only when they sell the shares, overall the healthy budget with a focus towards the future.

Strengthening for the collective vision for an inclusive Digital Bharat, the Union Budget 2022 sets the tone for India's techade. The governments’ sharp focus on the technology-enabled development and aligned investments in key sectors such as healthcare, education, fintech, infrastructure, start-ups, agriculture R&D, and manufacturing is the testament to India's technology prowess and capabilities of the Indian technology industry to provide a fillip to sectors across, said Nasscom  in his statement.

It added that the budget introduced measures ranging from the taxation to investment to help boost the country's economic activities, digital governance, and ease of doing business, job creation, ensuring and marking India's transition to an inclusive digital economy. It’s encouraged to see the government focusing on the digital skilling to encourage continual skilling avenues, sustainability and employability through online training, programmes, and industry collaborations, as well as the establishment for skilling e-labs for simulated learning settings. These are positive moves toward making India a global talent powerhouse.

There were certain points that have been left unaddressed, such additional focus on the industry led R&D in emerging technologies, enabling clarifications to allow units in SEZs flexibility to adopt hybrid work model, easing the taxation of ESOP by making the taxation regime available to all DPIIT recognized startups and taxing employees only when they sell the shares, said Nasscom. Nevertheless, they have believe overall this is a healthy budget, with a focus towards the future and continue to work with the government to ensure strengthen the road map for a trillion-dollar digital economy by 2026.

Tata Consultancy Services MD and CEO Rajesh Gopinathan said the Budget has "magnified" the Digital India vision and importance for the technology in all focus areas like infrastructure, inclusive development, sunrise industries, sustainability, or skilling. This Budget provides many opportunities for growth the technology industry by bringing world-class solutions and best practices for railways, education, financial services, healthcare, and regulatory bodies to accelerate for the India's growth. Tech Mahindra MD and CEO CP Gurnani said the budget truly echoes India's vision towards inclusive development and building a truly “Atmanirbhar Bharat” by providing the blueprint for the economy from India at 75 to India at 100.

FM's key announcements for block-chain and setting up e-passports with futuristic technologies are the step in the right direction to help India emerge as a global technology leader. The focus on innovation and R&D with an emphasis on strengthening talent capacity, they will enable India to become a global hub for skilled talent. Keshav R Murugesh, Group CEO at WNS, said a much-required thrust has been accorded to the digitalization of education along with the focus on upgrading the syllabus across colleges to equip upcoming talent with the right tools.

Announcements such as “Drone Shakti” and Drone-as-a-Service (DrAAS), besides for the one-year extension of incentives provided to them would immensely encourage existing and new players to focus on these areas. The announcement of reforms in customs administration of SEZs, which will be fully IT-driven, is commendable. Amit Chadha, CEO and MD at L&T Technology Services, said digital engineering is the future and the announcements appear to precisely embrace this proactive approach as the fundamental impetus has been on leveraging digital technologies to further the nation's growth and March ahead.

The theme of continued ease of doing business, consistency or stability in tax rates, rebates, push to further digitize the economy, issue of the RBI backed digital currency, legitimizing digital assets, and more seem to aid and support for the specific the IT industry which is expected by Nasscom to grow to become USD 350 billion in size in 5 years.

Mindtree CEO and MD Debashis Chatterjee said the move to grant infrastructure status for the data centres will be game-changer for India, while initiatives including digital rupee and e-passports based on the futuristic technologies are positive for the tech industry.

The digital push in various sectors is aimed at catalyzing growth, efficiency, and inclusiveness in the new normal. Nurturing for the more structured development of tier II-III cities is the crucial move towards augmenting ability to capitalize on our talent dividend, which continues to be one of the cornerstones of the global success of India's IT services industry, said Chatterjee. Arun Nathani, CEO and MD at Cybage, said significant expenditures in increasing for the digital infrastructure for skill development across the country will eventually help address the supply-side constraints for IT and ITeS enterprises.

SugarBox Networks CEO and his co-founder Rohit Paranjpe added that the focus on the latest digital technologies in the Budget will help to enable seamless and reliable access to digital services across education, healthcare and skilling, which are crucial developmental requirements for remote towns and cities in India.