NEWS

Budget 2017 pushes for a Digital economy with an eye on holistic Growth

By VARINDIA - 2017-02-01

Amidst controversies, the budget for the year 2017 has been presented successfully by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. This budget is significant as for the first time both Rail budget and General budget have been presented together.

It is quite evident that this budget has been framed keeping a holistic growth in mind. Though there are not much about IT and Telecom sector but still allocation of fund in few projects will boost the industry. Rs 10,000 cr has been allocated for Bharat Net Project which will strengthen internet and Wi-Fi infrastructure in gram panchayats, boosting the internet adoption in rural areas. Moreover, exemption of service charges for railway tickets booked via IRCTC will act as a catalyst to encourage digital economy. This will push people to adopt digital economy and go cashless. Furthermore, citizens will become more responsible in terms of paying taxes and incomes will be transparent.

The more people will go digital, more are the chances of cyber attacks. So to keep a check on the cyber attacks government has decided to setup CERT (Computer Emergency Response Team). The team will be monitor cyber hacks and ensure security of data.

To give a push to the Made in India project, the government has allocated Rs.745 cr by enhancing policies like Modified Special Incentive Package Scheme (MSIPS) and Electronic Development Fund (EDF). This will further boost the domestic mobile handset manufacturing.

''The Union Budget 2017 is at par with our expectations. We welcome the move by the Financial Minister meant to strengthen the digital infrastructure in rural India, by allocating INR 10,000 Cr for Bharat Net Project. The same is slated to empower over 150,000 gram panchayats with high speed internet and Wi-Fi hotspots. While this sets the right impetus for rural India to come online, the government has further taken the steps necessary to ensure optimum level of cybersecurity. We especially appreciate the Computer Emergency Response Team to be setup post the budget announcement and dedicatedly monitor cyber hacks, ensuring the security and integrity of online data. The synergy created by these announcements, along with the efforts of cyber security solutions is going to further inspire new users to come online, aiding India’s transition to a digital economy,'' says Amit Nath, ‎Head of Asia Pacific - Corporate Business at F-Secure.

“The Budget 2017-18 theme is to Transform, Energize and Clean India and every citizen to my mind will agree with this theme. The focus on both physical and digital infrastructure build out continues and there are clear milestones stated in the budget for instance that 150,000 Gram Panchayats will have Broadband connectivity by end of 2017-18 and these will be used to provide tele-medicine & education is laudable. This is not a populist budget, but a budget which caters sensibly to the poor, youth, farmers, villages and infrastructure to propel India further every year. Demonetization was a bold move and so is the move to bring in transparency in electoral funding as announced in this budget,” states Anil Valluri, President, NetApp India & SAARC.

Neel Ratan, Leader- Government and Public Sector, PwC India is of the opinion that, “The Government seems committed to the cause of bridging the digital divide and taking digital to the masses. Allocation of 10,000 crore for Bharat Net and elimination of service charges for railway tickets booked via IRCTC will give a major boost to the mission of making India a digital economy. Additional funds for Bharat Net will further spread the tentacles of optical fiber, which is the backbone of Digital India programme. Aadhaar based smart cards for monitoring the health of senior citizens is a great way to leverage the citizen identity database while marrying technology with health. The move will reduce the burden on our health machinery to some extent and open up avenues to explore more applications of digital citizen identity database.”

Bipin Preet Singh, Founder & CEO, MobiKwik views, “Big digital push is the thrust of the Budget and is a very welcome and the right move for the future growth of the economy. I commend this progressive budget that invests heavily in technology and digitization. The focus on digital payments will lead to revolutionary transformation in Indians' payment habits. Digital payments will be the new normal in 2017 and we are very excited about this. As we become more digital, India will see new taxpayers and better transparency in incomes.”

Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Founder & CEO - Paytm says, "It is a digital economy budget. Government has pushed the digital theme in every area of the budget. Every person from small shops to consumers is pushed towards the digital economy. Tax benefits, incentives to use digital payments and extending loans based on a digital footprint will create a larger merchant ecosystem for digital payments. Incentives for labour intensive sectors including housing, farming and dairy will help SMEs to create new jobs. Focus and attention to bank NPAs, as well as increasing bank capitalization is great step towards strengthening the financial system of the country. Finally, the income tax rate changes will encourage more people to report their incomes and create a larger tax net for the country. Overall, it is a great budget that will encourage people to move to the formal economy and derive benefits."

Sivarama Krishnan, Leader- Cybersecurity, PwC India says, “CERT for financial sector to help manage cyber security, “The thrust on Digital India and digital payments both require a focus on cyber security. The financial CERT and the attention towards cyber security in financial budget is in right direction. The implementation of the initiative will help secure Digital India.”

Jaideep Ghosh, Partner, KPMG in India says, “Union Budget aims to boost Digital Economy, which will have a positive impact on the telecom sector. Additional outlay of Rs 10,000 crore for BharatNet and creation of ‘Digi- Gaon’ a definite positive to Broadband penetration; however BharatNet implementation track record needs to significantly improve for benefits to reach rural India. MSIPs benefits for domestic manufacturing of mobile devices & components will strengthen ‘Make in India’ and add to employment. Broadband penetration has a direct impact on economic growth, employment, innovation & prosperity. Strong push on transport connectivity, and healthcare and education through digital media, are likely to have significant long term impact on the telecom ecosystem.”

Akshay Dhoot, Head, Technology and Innovation, Videocon states, “We congratulate the Central Government for presenting a growth conducive budget. The overall announcements seem like a cohesive push for holistic economic growth. We welcome initiatives that will give further boost to Make in India in order to make our country a hub of electronic and tech manufacturing. This has been taken care of with announcements like incentivizing local electronic manufacturing up to Rs.745 crore by enhancing special policies like Modified Special Incentive Package Scheme (MSIPS) and Electronic Development Fund (EDF). This move would definitely give more sops to domestic mobile handset makers. India is one of the fastest growing mobile markets in the world and it would further get boost from newly formed trade infra export scheme.”

Upgrading digital infrastructure to support cashless transactions in rural and semi urban areas will encourage more merchants and consumers to transact on non-cash and online platforms. However, we feel that the government must have also considered promoting startups in the digital payments and digital security areas. Secure digital transactions is the only way to sustain India's habit of cashless payments.

Sunil Jose, Managing Director, Teradata India says, “Budget 2017 highlights the government’s focus on enforcing greater transparency and accountability with a clear attempt being made to widen the tax base. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley made several references to using data mining to improve the efficiency of the various tax departments specifically with regards to transforming India from a cash driven to a digital economy using new measures such as Aadhaar Pay. This is a step in the right direction which will have a relevant impact in widening the tax base and make India fiscally stronger and have a positive impact on national growth and development.”

The budget also promoted the startup ecosystem with tax benefits. Reduction in the corporate tax for Medium and Small Scale Enterprises (MSMEs) to 25% will also go a long way in attracting more investment in the country. It will surely give the domestic sector a massive push and indirectly help the country in restoring its healthy GDP growth forecast.

Overall the Budget proposals look to boost consumption. The impetus on affordable housing and rural infrastructure will boost lower and middle income and translate into consumption.

Rajasundaram Sudarshan, COO & C0-founder, CreditMantri says, “This is a clearly a growth centric budget. It has brought significant benefits to middle income group and SME sector through lower taxes, deferred loss absorption benefits and capital gain period reduction. It has released more money with these segments which will give better purchasing power. Low cost housing will certainly help the much needed boost. These two sectors are likely to see more lending and credit activity happening.”

Vishal Malhotra, Tax Telecom Leader, EY India, “The FM while acknowledging the importance of the telecom sector for the economy as also the digital initiative of the government, hasn’t proposed much for the telecom sector at least in his budget speech. Extension of the period for claiming MAT credit to 15 years from 10 year presently as well as extension of period for availing lower withholding rate of 5 percent on External Commercial Borrowings and Masala Bonds, is expected to benefit the industry. The relaxation in transfer pricing compliance on specified domestic transactions, should also assist in lowering the compliance burden of the telecom players other than those who continue to claim profit linked incentives.”

Rajesh Gopinathan, CFO and VP - TCS

“The Union Budget 2017-18 focuses on Inclusion, Transparency, Fiscal Responsibility and gives a big push to the Digital economy. It encourages a shift to digital platforms with incentives to payers as well as merchants driving convenience, efficiency and transparency. An increased allocation to BharatNet will bring high speed broadband connectivity to more than 1, 50,000 gram panchayats, with wi-fi hot spots and access to digital services at low tariffs. The proposed DigiGaon initiative to provide telemedicine, education and skills through digital technology will increase empowerment."

Rajiv Srivastava, MD, HP India

“The Union Budget 2017-18 is extremely positive for the common man, farmers, small and medium businesses and would drive significant growth in Indian economy. Government’s commitment to make taxation rate reasonable, tax administration fair and expand the tax base is the step taken in the right direction. The tax relief given by the Government for the middle class tax payers will definitely boost the purchasing power, thereby aiding the overall growth of the economy. The major tax relief given to the MSMEs and SMEs with an annual turnover of Rs. 50 crores, would enable them to invest in job creation, increase capital expenditure and explore their digital journey.

The strong emphasis laid on technology in almost all the development areas in the budget reaffirms that technology has been at the forefront of India’s recent economic growth and digital transformation. It has been recognized as an important enabler across initiatives ranging from agriculture to skill development to manufacturing and infrastructural development. The Government’s focus on making India a digital payment economy will definitely help companies like HP to contribute in technology adoption in rural and semi-urban areas, thereby bringing the Digital India’ vision closer to reality. We also welcome the Finance Minister’s commitment to introduce and implement Goods and Services Tax (GST) as per schedule and start GST awareness programme from April 1, 2017 for all stakeholders.”

Mohit Anand, Co – Founder & CEO Secure Connection Pvt. Ltd.

“Post demonetization, retail consumer spending has rapidly collapsed. In this year’s budget, we were hoping for a solution in this space from the government to ensure that consumers are able to come back to the physical stores, thereby resulting in some growth in the consumer retail market. But at the same time, we’re quite hopeful of the entire initiative of making India an electronic manufacturing hub. It is definitely a step in the right direction and we are excited to learn more about it in detail in the final proposal.”

Rajesh Maurya, Regional Director, India & SAARC, Fortinet

“The IT industry is buoyed by this path breaking budget which takes another major step towards a complete digital economy. The Bharat Net project spends is being stepped up to Rs 10,000 crore to make high-speed broadband on optical fibre available in over 1.5 lakh gram panchayats with hotspots. IT Infrastructure investments will see a substantial increase in rural India and as a leading security vendor we will focus on this new emerging market.

Aadhar based smart cards are being introduced for senior citizens to capture health details and 350 online process are being setup for students, all these initiatives needs the government to develop a strong security framework to protect sensitive information.

A strong public-private partnership with a security provider is essential for the government to safeguard the emerging Digital India. The partner can provide up-to-date information and threat intelligence to the IT staff, as well as define an escalation path when an incident is detected. Government agencies should also proactively partner cyber security organizations and solution providers to share threat information, so that collectively, the industry can have a more comprehensive view of the Indian cyber landscape to protect the new initiatives planned in this budget.”

Rajiv Mehrotra, Chairman and Founder - VNL & Shyam Telecom

“We welcome the budget with its thrust on maintaining the GDP growth momentum and curtailing current account deficit. The overall approach has been to spend more in rural areas and that will help the farm sector. Emphasis has been given to areas like infrastructure development, skill development, encouraging manufacturing and on Digital India. All this echoes our own focus. The DigiGaon initiative announced to provide tele-medicine, education and skills through digital technology in rural India is exactly what we’ve been propagating through our Digital Villages solution, so we heartily support that. We also welcome the Finance Minister’s additional budgetary support to the BharatNet initiative to bring broadband access to more Gram Panchayats this fiscal. However, we would have liked to see some initiatives for the promotion of the indigenous telecom equipment manufacturing industry, and a boost to the Design in India and Make in India programmes.

All in all, it’s a positive budget."

Ajay Chhangani, CEO & Co-Founder of RISE INDIA

“The finance minister has taken numerous great moves in union budget’17 like implication 25% tax on companies having less than 50 crore turnover. Also, the setup of 100 international skill development centres and 350 online courses with top faculty would help in energize the youth and accelerate the employment growth of the country. Allocation of 1.84 lacs crores for skill development for women is the biggest ever initiative on women empowerment taken by Government of India. This budget has many provisions to boost the SME and educations sector and it will create more job opportunities for the youth.”

Satya Pramod – C.F.O (Chief financial officer), Tally Solution Pvt ltd.

“The best thing Mr. Jaitley has done is he has not tinkered too much, especially with indirect taxes and has gone with the flow which has made the markets buoyant. Overall, the economy is going in the right direction with a fiscal deficit of 3.2%. In terms of investment, the removal of FIPB and making the procedure simpler will attract foreign investments and facilitate ease of business. From a GST adoption standpoint, it is music to the ears to hear that the GST council has finalized most of the recommendations made to it and the states and centre are aligned. Also, not changing the indirect tax rates at this juncture is a clear indication that GST is all set for 1st July. The introduction of GST will further strengthen India’s push for better economic growth. Further to this, the seriousness of the government and the tax administration on compliance, whereby, the time limit for completion of assessments has been reduced from 21 months to 18 months which will subsequently be reduced to 12 months (FY 18-19) is noteworthy. For industries, the carry forward provision of MAT credit to 15 years and the reduction in corporate taxes to 25% from the existing 30% for MSMEs is a welcome move and will give a fillip to this segment. The Digital India mission is also live with the FM going on record to say that India is on the cusp of a digital revolution. This along with the various schemes that were announced in relation to making this revolution a success speaks volumes about the commitment of the government towards this campaign.”

Prabhu Srinivasan, Chief Strategy Officer, Intelenet Global Services

“We perceive this Union Budget 2017-18 to be one that will bridge gaps, in the country’s efforts to enhance its growth momentum. While certain aspects of the budget, such as the thrust toward digitization and skill India are indeed well-received, we feel that there should have been a dedicated focus on corporate tax and capital gains exemptions, to boost business growth amidst uncertain and volatile global economic conditions.

The addressal of MAT is a step in the right direction, with the current amendment to increase the tenure for usability of refunds from the current 10 years to 15 years, while laying emphasis on the eventual abolishment of this tax type.

The ongoing move toward GST too is a commendable effort, and we await the clarity promised from GST council on the move toward implementation. We also welcome the move to improve the skilling of youth, as the next wave of business evolution will require an enhanced skillset, to meet the needs of a globalized and highly competitive business environment.

From the personal tax perspective, we expect that the reduction in the lowest tax slab from 10% to 5% for individuals in the tax bracket between 2.5lakh to 5 lakh will boost employee satisfaction. Our employees can therefore enjoy higher ‘take-home’ salaries which will in some form ease the pressure on companies.”

Dr. Rishi Bhatnagar, President, Aeris

“Overall a very positive budget. Reduction of corporate tax rates from 30% to 25% for MSME firms will definitely encourage investors and corporates. Some of the steps taken will definitely increase foreign direct investment and lead to employment generation which will be good for country.”

Sumit Sabharwal – CEO (Managed Services) & Managing Director (SAARC), Excelity Global

“We are delighted and welcome the Union Budget 2017 where the proposals have huge benefit for the growing India private sector workforce. It provides impetus and greater momentum towards a digital economy to make India more competitive on a global platform. Budget announcements will further encourage Excelity’s endeavor to add value to our client’s employees with superior, innovative, simplified and customized value-based technology and mobility offerings.”

Debjani Ghosh, Managing Director of South Asia, Intel and President, MAIT

“It's good to see continued and strong commitment towards increasing technology adoption and usage across critical sectors like education, agriculture, financial inclusion and rural and infrastructure development. That's how we can successfully drive the digitization of India. However, the budget has fallen short of creating avenues to increase the manufacturing of the technology solutions in India beyond smartphones. As MAIT has been recommending, there is a real opportunity to grow the PC manufacturing ecosystem in India leading to increased job creation and impact. By not extending the support for local manufacturing to these segments, we are missing an opportunity for creating a robust electronics manufacturing ecosystem.”

Harshvardhan Lunia, CEO & Co-Founder, Lendingkart Group

“This is a progressive budget and rightly focuses on some of the critical areas such as rural population, financial sector, skilling of youth and promotion of digital economy. As a digital lending platform that has reached out to more than 500 cities, 70% of which belong to the rural territory, we resonate the government's vision of enabling financial inclusion through proliferation of digital literacy in rural India. In this regard, the initiatives announced in terms of bringing in reforms in the digital payment system and introduction of Aadhar Pay app is a welcome move towards empowering the fintech segment, at large.

SMEs in India are credit starved. In this regard, the increase in limit of Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana (PMMY) for banks and NBFCs to Rs. 1, 80,000 crore is a positive step towards bridging the financing gap existing in the SME segment. Additionally, the fact that presumptive taxation scheme turnover limit has been extended to Rs. 2 crore, will bring a relief to large number of assesses in the MSME category. Also, the reduction of income tax for smaller companies to 25% will act as a stimulus for these units to expand their business.

Lastly, we are pleased to see FDI being allowed beyond 18 specified NBFCs activities in the automatic route as this is expected to provide the much needed boost to the financial service sector. This move is expected to particularly benefit domestic fund management and advisory businesses which may now raise foreign capital under a relaxed regime, without adhering to the previously prescribed minimum capitalization norms.”

Nikhil Sinha, Chief Business Officer, Coursera

“The focus on learning outcomes and a new innovation fund are good initiatives to improve school education, but it would have been nice to see concrete steps to improve school infrastructure and teacher training, which are basic needs in the sector. In higher education, the Budget focuses on much needed and long overdue regulatory reforms with a promise of changes in the UGC, a revised framework for output based accreditation and greater autonomy for high quality institutions. It’s also encouraging to see the continued expansion of SWAYAM. But online education is an important component of the country’s ability to expand higher education and SWAYAM alone won’t be the answer to making high quality education widely available. The Government also needs to reduce the regulatory hurdles for good quality private online education providers, both domestic and international. With the SANKALP and STRIVE programs, the Government continues its emphasis on skill development. However, skill development needs to go hand-in-hand with job creation and the Government needs to focus on increasing employment in the formal sector. Overall, the budget moves the education and skills sectors in the right direction but execution and the allocation of funds will, as always, determine whether we see real impact on the ground.”

Dhiraj Agarwal, Co-Founder - Campus Sutra

“One development in this year's budget has been the reduction in profit linked-deductions for start-ups to 3 years out of 7 years. This will enable and encourage entrepreneurship and result in more startups finding their space. Last year, the government had approved a Rs 6,000-crore special package for the textiles and apparel sector to create one crore new jobs in 3 years. In this budget again, the plan to launch a scheme for the labour intensive leather and footwear sector, similar to the existing one for textiles, is encouraging. The textiles and apparel sector is one of the major players in the Make in India initiative and these steps are a boost in the right direction.

PM Kaushal Kendras will be extended to 600 districts and 100 international skill centres will be opened to help people get jobs abroad. This is a welcome move in terms of employment for the youth in the country. The biggest problem facing the country today is job creation and one of the industries which will have a large cascading impact on job creation is textiles. This budget does see some positive developments on that front. The steps towards checking corruption and black money are also welcome.”

Surendra Singh – Country Director, Forcepoint

“We appreciate and welcome the Finance Minister’s announcement on setting up a Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) for the financial sector made today during Union Budget 2017. It reaffirms Digital India’s long term commitment towards securing consumer’s against cyber frauds. We believe that this initiative will help to strengthen security of the financial sector amid the increasing incidents of cyber frauds thereby protecting the consumers of various financial institutions”.

Pulkit Punj, Director, AnG India Ltd.

“The Union Budget 2017-18 is favorable for the technology sector, small and medium sized enterprises significantly contributing to grow the Indian economy. The Government’s undertaking to make tax rates reasonable and expand tax base will be a boost for our businesses. The major tax relief given to the MSMEs and SMEs with an annual turnover of Rs. 50 crores, would enable them to invest in new technology, R & D and explore their digital journey. The ‘Make in India’ initiative will also bring in growth opportunities for local Industries and increase industry output. A considerable emphasis laid on technology in all the development areas and sectors assures us that technology will be at the forefront for India’s economic growth and digital transformation. This budget, has given a momentous push to infrastructure which will also act as an integrated approach to improve safety for the citizens.”

Eric Braganza, President, Haier Appliances India - Haier

“We welcome the Union Budget 2017-18 and the GST policy. We are extremely happy with the initiative of the government to make India the hub for manufacturing of electronic goods. This will boost the manufacturing capacity in the country and also increase job opportunities. Further, in accordance with this move, Haier will soon inaugurate its manufacturing facility in Pune in 2017, following the investment of Rs. 500 crores that was made in 2015 towards the facility.”

Snehashish Bhattacharjee, Global CEO & Co-founder - Denave

“Union Budget 2017 is mostly in line with the long-term economic development strategy of the present government. For the Retail/ FMCG segment, highway and road infrastructure focus will work well in tandem with the advantages of the GST implementation. This will also go a long way in allowing development of tier3/satellite towns closer to the Tier1/tier2 cities and thereby a little more even distribution of population across tiered cities and rural areas. The SOPs towards getting closer to a cashless economy (Digitization SOPs, BHIM app and Aadhaar Pay drive, removal of service charges on e-ticket booking etc.) will help continue the aggressive approach against the black money economy and thereby provide the country with more compliant tax paying citizens, thereby get closer to the 3% fiscal deficit goal by FY’19.

Affordable housing focus along with the realty sector SOPs (carpeted area calculation, delayed capital gains tax on unsold inventory, infrastructure status and reduced interests on home loans) will provide the much needed leg-up to the realty sector (more buyers and therefore more affordable homes) and also increase adoption of professional approaches in this unorganized sector. The promise of doubling income for farmers through the committed investments and SOPs will help in getting much needed focus back to an important GDP contributing sector.

However, there are two important aspects that need to be focused on to make the Budget effective – one, effective implementation and two, more banking infrastructure in the rural areas and Tier 4/5 cities to enable higher digital economy adoption across a larger population. Overall, the budget is progressive, and one can expect accelerated growth of the Indian economy in the coming financial year.”

Sanjay Jalona, MD & CEO – L&T Infotech

“One key take away from the Union Budget is that technology will continue to play a pivotal role in governance as well as the ecosystem of the nation. Overall, the budget is well balanced and new initiatives such as SWAYAM, imparting education on foreign languages under Skill India, AADHAR enabled payments, augur well in skill development and digitalization. On direct tax front, extending period of MAT credit, additional favourable measures for start-ups to foster innovation, concessional tax rate for Small and Medium Enterprises, are all welcome moves.”

Rakesh Desmukh, CEO & co-Founder, Indus OS

“The Budget is an extremely promising one, and extremely pro digital economy. Several of the initiatives rolled out seek to include the masses into the ‘Digital’ India’ fold, making it possible for them to not only have the right technology to transact online, but also the right broadband infrastructure to provide Internet to data dark areas. Specific announcements and provisions like the target of Rs 2,500 crore digital transactions across platforms like UPI, AadharPay, IMPS, launch of AadharPay for merchants, and Aadhar-based smart cards for senior citizens, all encourage more Indians to come online and gives them more reason to transact online. Incentives to promote the use of BHIM app will make citizens more comfortable with mobile wallets, and we see all of these as providing a major boost to India’s move to digital.

As a Made in India operating system, Indus OS has been rapidly expanding its footprint across India. With the Govt’s effort towards digitizing the nation, smartphones will become a critical conduit to bring technology access to the common man. And as more Indians come online, there is a pressing need for smartphones to be designed to suit their unique needs, in their regional languages, and OS-led innovations will lead the way in seeing this vision through. We remain invested in the Govt’s efforts, and will continue to partner with the Govt. to bring newer innovations to the fore.”

Peter Chang, Region Head – South Asia & Country Manager - ASUS India

“The budget gave the smartphone industry a lot to look forward to in the coming year. Government’s thrust on digitization through its push on Aadhaar-enabled payments will provide impetus to the demand of mobile phones in the country. The BHIM app has already been adopted by 125 lakh people and government’s plans to introduce two new schemes to promote its use will make the concept of a cashless society and digital currency, a reality. In addition to this, proposed extension of the OFC network to 1, 50,000 gram panchayats for high speed broadband connectivity and rollout of 4G in the country will create a more digitally inclusive society. The budget was also conducive to promoting domestic manufacturing of electronics. With a provision of INR 745 crores in 2017-18 in incentive schemes like M-SIPS and EDF, manufacturing of smartphones in India should see a boost. We now look forward to the successful rollout of GST this year. Besides achieving standardization of taxation levels and making interstate movement of goods easier, it should also help sellers achieve similar selling prices. This coupled with all the other initiatives will enable us to bring more people under the digital umbrella.”

Girish Rowjee, Co-founder and CEO, Greytip Software said, “The 2017 Union Budget has several positive elements that will significantly impact the MSME and Startup sectors. While the overall budget was well-balanced, the reduction in corporate taxes by 5% will immensely benefit the MSMEs in India and spur growth in the domestic sector. Legislative reforms to streamline and amalgamate existing labour laws into four codes will significantly help in simplifying the effort required on statutory compliances and result in improved compliance across organizations.

From a digitization perspective, the increased allocation to BharathNet will see improved connectivity and broadband penetration to smaller towns and rural areas. This has been set to ultimately result in inclusion of more organizations and individuals under the digital economy and aid technology organizations that provide cloud and digital solutions. Additionally, we are pleased to see more emphasis on the Model Shops and Establishments Act that was announced earlier which will help in creating more employment opportunities especially for women.

Finally, the reduction in tax rates for employees below 5L will also act as a catalyst in increasing the tax payers’ pool along with along with putting more money in the hands of tax payers especially the formal salaried employees."

Sanjeev Saini –Director (Technical), Su-Kam

“Honestly when our honourable finance minister Arun Jaitley announced the series of measures in Budget 2017-18 to promote clean energy, access to power and energy security, we as a company are looking forward about its future scope. This thought will result in 20 gigawatts (GW) of solar capacity addition to which it will add on to higher spending on rural electrification.

Su Kam would be standing with Mr Jaitley’s initiative of full electrification of 18,452 villages which were identified in 2015 & that will be achieved by 1 March 2018, for which an extra Rs4,814 crore will be spent in the next financial year. Also with the announcement of setting up of 20 GW of solar power capacity and feeding 7,000 railway stations with solar power, giving a major impetus to the shift to clean energy.

Solar energy initiatives, with the help of our government policies and the depreciating global prices, is now at an escalating point where it can compete on its own against other forms of conventional energy sources.”

Harsh Marwah, Country Manager - Verizon Enterprise Solutions

In recent years, the Indian Government has made consistent efforts and undertaken initiatives to foster the growth and development of the Indian IT sector, which has enabled the sector to lead the economic and the digital transformation of the country. The recommendations in the structural reforms for digital payments are a positive step towards recognizing the importance of the thriving digital payments sector. Increased investments for the growth of the digital economy will usher in a knock on effect on additional transformational development in India.

It is additionally heartening to see the Government’s plans to develop a CERT team to tackle the increasing threat of cybercrime in the BFSI space. It demonstrates how cyber security is increasingly becoming an integral part of the Government’s national agenda. Secure digital infrastructure and network will be essential for the acceleration of the Digital India movement. It will also encourage adoption of e-banking and e-payments on a regular basis.

Moving forward we continue to see additional scope on additional IT reforms including undertaking measures for the reduction in the service tax for enterprises. This is exactly what India needs to do if it is to attract investment, stimulate innovation, and ultimately stake its claim on a share of the global digital economy.

Overall, it was a well thought and far-sighted budget.”

Kalpana B, Partner and Head, Robotics and Cognitive Automation, KPMG in India

“With initiatives such as digital payment platforms (Aadhar pay, Bhim, pay, UPI), budget allocations towards infrastructure modernization, bringing transparency in the ease of doing business as well as long term tax initiatives, technology is clearly a key focus area for this government. Even the unprecedented move of demonetization is a mammoth effort undertaken by the government to shift from a cash heavy economy towards a digital era. A great opportunity platform for foreign investments, technology-centric businesses and job creation.”

Amin Rozani, MD & Co-founder - The Spartan Poker

“Budget 2017 brings in a relief to the start-up eco-system as the profit linked deductions have been proposed to be reduced to 3 years from 7 years, giving the sector a much-needed boost. Moreover, the 7 year tax holiday will help start-ups recover the losses that were incurred due to demonetization. In 2017, we can expect more and more start-ups entering the market, and the existing ones optimizing their growth. Focusing on the rural economy, the Finance Minister announced that by the end of 2017-18, 1.5 lakh gram panchayats will have access to high-speed broadband connectivity which will further the cause of digital inclusion. Overall, this Union Budget is a positive push towards ushering a new digitized economy across sectors, and promises an optimistic future for start-ups.”

Thyagarajan Seshadri, President of Banking Relations -Electronic Payment and Services Pvt. Ltd.

“Budget 2017 provides impetus and growth to Digital Payments, proposes change to the Payments and Settlements Systems Act, and envisages a Payment Regulatory Board in the Reserve Bank of India. It paves way for digital economy by focussing on speed, accountability and transparency. However, the budget misses the big picture that is employment and jobs creation, sector wise infrastructure spends by Government, measures to boost FDI and growth of financial sector for stability. In the payments platform, there is no concrete implementation plan passed yet, which further requires deeper understanding on action plans catering to Referral Bonus Scheme for individuals and cashback scheme for merchants, and target set for 2,500 crore digital transactions by 2017-18 through UPI, USSD, Aadhar Pay, IMPS and debit cards.”

Andy Stevenson, Head of India, Turkey and Middle East - Fujitsu

“Fujitsu is enthused by the slew of measures being introduced in Budget 2017. While the move towards an internal ‘borderless’ nation will obviously benefit the nation, as has been discussed in various forums – an emphasis on infrastructure in terms of electrification, digital services, roads etc. will further build on the foundation to India being a world class economy.”

Jay Chen, CEO, Huawei India

“We at Huawei Telecommunications India are pleased to note that the current budget strongly supports the progressive vision of a Digital India set by Hon’ble Government. The allocation of Rs 10,000 crore towards BharatNet will give an overall boost to broadband connectivity in the country. The success of the BHIM app and announcements related to its promotion, Aadhar based swipe machines, and tax exemption to those who use Aadhar based POS machines, will all help accelerate acceptance of digital payments. Furthermore, initiatives like ‘Digital Village’ and ‘Digi-Gaun’ will significantly extend the benefits of digitization to rural India and contribute to a Better Connected India.”

Nita Kapoor, Head – India New Ventures, News Corp

“Much like the Startup India initiative, the Union Budget 2017 has left the Indian startup community asking for more. Be it a 5 year tax holiday or the profit linked-deductions for start-ups are benefits which are virtually redundant. This is because there is a long gestation period for them to even break even, forget achieving profitability. Had there been fiscal incentives for private sector to support the setting up of more incubators through industry academic partnerships that would have been a positive for startups in India.”

Sashank Rishyasringa, Co-founder and Managing Director, Capital Float

“This budget is transformational at its core, aimed at propelling India towards becoming a digital economy while increasing employment opportunities and having a determined focus on rural development. The Government’s push for digitizing infrastructure is heartening. Incentivizing cashless transactions at fuel stations, hospitals and railways, rolling out 1 million POS terminals by March and proposing a payment regulatory body to the RBI will help create a robust architecture for digital transactions. Activating Aadhaar Pay and providing referral bonuses and cashback schemes to promote BHIM will drive digital money in Tier 2 and Tier 3 markets.

Reducing income tax by 5% for MSMEs with under Rs 50 crore in turnover will provide a huge boost to the spirit of entrepreneurship in the country. Additionally, by abolishing FIPD, the Finance Minister has made FDI much simpler and faster. E-commerce and retail will especially benefit from increased foreign investments, thereby fortifying India’s trade strength.

Increased investments in railways and road infrastructure will facilitate interstate trade while lowering the cost of operations for merchants.” said Sashank Rishyasringa, Co-founder and Managing Director, Capital Float.

Rostow Ravanan, CEO and MD - Mindtree

“Several measures introduced in the 2017 Union Budget are an important step towards building India into an important digital economy. This budget has made special provisions to ensure greater financial growth, with emphasis on enhancing cybersecurity in finance, and bringing greater coordination and transparency between departments. The Computer Emergency Response Scheme is a great initiative which will smoothen coordination between finance regulators. The push to drive adoption of mobile and an Aadhaar-enabled payment system will help bring in greater financial inclusion amongst citizens.

Additionally, IT exemption for start-ups will help reduce income tax for smaller companies with a turnover less than INR 50 crore, which we believe will significantly improve the ease of doing business for smaller businesses and start-ups in India. There has also been a revision in personal income tax rates which will boost consumption to some extent.

The new budget has also made provisions to raise India’s innovation quotient, through the setting up of an innovation fund to encourage and fuel innovation amongst youth. The budget’s focus on making education more accessible to educationally backward blocks, along with the steps taken to ramp up the Skill India Mission will also help in maximizing the potential and capabilities of youth in the country.”

Ashu Kajekar, CEO, 7EDGE Private Limited

“On the face of it, this budget is very common-man friendly. Announcements like the doing away with taxes and duties on sale of POS systems and mPOS systems definitely shows the commitment of the government to move towards a cashless economy. Am intent to connect the country with high-speed internet is definitely a step in the right direction that will help everyone connected to the internet. It will also create a new generation of internet users. As an Internet First company we look forward to supporting the Government in its initiatives of Skill India and Digital India. Also, the Government's commitment towards shifting to a digital economy is amply evident from the FM's speech. And the setting up of 'Computer emergency response team' to counter cyber security in the financial sector will further strengthen the ongoing process (of digitalization).

Finally, we hope that the robust plan presented in the budget will firmly propel the economy onto the much needed growth curve.”

Ajay Chauhan, Co-Founder and CEO, SalezShark

“We are assessing several benefits for SME sector with the Chancellor’s strapline on the budget for this year. The tax rates have been lowered to 25% which is good for the sector as this will positively impact the bottom lines of small businesses which had witnessed the slower growth post demonetization.”

Satya Prabhakar – Founder & CEO, Sulekha

“I believe the Government has taken concrete steps to give a fillip to the economy and yet tilt it towards white. Reduction of income tax by 5%, from 30% to 25%, for SMEs with a turnover of less than 50 Cr strongly indicates Government’s belief that it expects the SMEs to be major drivers for the economy. Reducing the LTCG window for property from 3 years to 2 years and putting affordable housing (below 30L) under infrastructure development category is also a significant step to improve the real estate sentiment in the country. We at Sulekha believe that this budget promises optimism for the local services and properties sector.”

Ravi Goyal, Chairman and Managing Director, AGS Transact Technologies Limited

“As a leading end-to-end payment solutions provider, we welcome the pro-growth policies announced in today’s Union Budget which gives a strong impetus to all forms of transactions – especially the digital and the alternate payments ecosystem. The introduction of measures like AadharPay, targeting 2500 crore digital transactions across platforms like UPI will bring ease in transactions especially in rural and semi urban areas (RUSU) as well as incentivise the merchants owing to favorable merchant discount rate (MDR). Furthermore, creating digital infrastructure at petrol pumps will increase the ambit of cashless transactions/payments. Digitization being one of the key agendas for next Financial year, the continued thrust on digitizing platforms will definitely give a fillip to India’s booming FinTech and Banking Payments Services industry by bringing efficiencies and driving greater customer adoption.

With a much-needed boost of INR 10,000 crores for recapitalization of banking institutions under the Indradhanush scheme, the NPA limit enhancement from 7.5 to 8.5 pc and with affordable housing thrust, banking sector will witness an upsurge in performance. The profitability boost combined with JAM trinity will bring in vigor for the ATM industry fostering greater outreach in Semi-urban and Rural areas.

We also laud the tax exemptions on duties levied on manufacturing miniature PoS & m-PoS machines and on its import coupled with the target to develop 10 lakhs additional PoS terminals by March FY’17 which will further incentivise domestic players like us in building India’s digital economy. As the exclusive technology partners of the first of its kind Kochi Metro Rail Ltd (KMRL) project, we are glad to see a formal impetus from the government in this direction and eagerly await more details on the policy.”

Surjit K Bawa, MD India, Chi Networks

"India is traditionally behind cyber security standards compared to developed nations but the latest demonetization has fueled the requirement of better cyber security policies and framework. Hence the formation of core team for the financial sector is a great move, however implementation will only see the right results. Other than this, we have high hopes from GST as we are currently paying about 24% in taxes for services and products offered to our clients here, hence a single tax of 17% maximum will be more than welcome. Similarly, if we look at cyber security standards, much more needs to be done by the Government and the private sector."

Rajiv Mody – Chairman, Managing Director, & CEO, Sasken says, “The Union budget 2017 is in line with the much needed fiscal prudence post demonetization. The push for a digital economy has never been more pertinent than it is today, given the transparency in governance that the Centre is aiming for. Initiatives like Aadhar Pay and e-filing for FDI applications will reign in the required transparency in business funding, address foreign investor sentiments and encourage consumers to adopt cashless payment practices. Apart from this, the move to improve skilling will serve as a strong impetus towards improving employability as well. The Union budget 2017 is truly reflective of India’s steady move towards a more digital revolution.”

Rajeev Agarwal, CEO and Founder, Innoviti Payments Solutions says, "Apart from the broad support announced for further progressing the current push for increased digital payments, the intention to create a Payments Regulatory Board at RBI is a welcome move. One of the challenges in adoption of digital payment technologies has been lack of inter-operability between various payment innovations. This has led to increased friction in adoption at user level. Further, since payment deals with movement of money, lack of regulatory control has also led to unreliable systems which affect consumer and merchant confidence in digital payment acceptance. A regulatory board and panel will go a long way in bringing both inter-operability and reliability in payments."

Deepak Kumar Sahu, Publisher-VARINDIA

The Government's continued support to Digital India initiatives with the intent to move towards a cashless economy and initiatives to strengthen the digital infrastructure"A digital Economy". It seems as India is on the edge of a massive digital revolution. The budget reiterates that the road to financial inclusion is through digital finance. With this India will have new taxpayers & better transparency in system. Secondly, we welcome the reduction of corporate tax from 30% to 25% for MSMEs and appreciates the big push for digital economy, cyber security measures and its belief in technology for achieving developmental goals. Lastly, the demonetization drive undertaken by the government is a "great move" with shorter pain and longer gain. Lastly, Government’s announcement on multiple measures can improve local manufacturing and create a better component ecosystem for mobile handset makers.

Nitin Bhatt, EY India’s Risk Advisory Leader says, “Disruptive innovations and the digital transformation of businesses and governments are exponentially enhancing cyber-risks. What is worrisome is that the response gap - which is the difference between the abilities of the attackers and the capabilities of organizations is increasing as well, leading to this lack of confidence in the cybersecurity function.”

According to the survey, outdated information security architecture and controls has most increased risk exposure for India Inc over the last 12 months, with as many as 61% of the respondents citing this aspect as their topmost vulnerability. Careless or unaware employees is their second-most important concern (58%), while vulnerabilities related to mobile computing, social media and cloud computing also feature prominently as contributing to enhanced risk exposure for corporate India. Among threats, the majority (54%) believe that cyber-attacks are primarily targeted at defacing/disrupting organizations or towards stealing intellectual property or data (51%), followed by fraud (48%).

The need of the hour is for organizations to review if their security governance and architecture is adequate to protect their crown jewels. Since cyber resilience cannot be achieved by buying “security-in-a-box,” organizations need to focus on gathering periodic threat intelligence, enhancing their threat-hunting and breach-detection capabilities, and institutionalizing a robust incident-response framework.”

Dr.GulshanRai, National Cybersecurity Coordinator, National Security Council, Prime Minister’s Office, Government of India.

We are at the cusp of a cybersecurity paradigm shift and it is imperative that for the overall national security we join hands to share, evaluate and acquire threat intelligence and develop a robust operational framework to use this with security technologies. We will need immense focus to encourage technological innovations in cyber security to secure national critical infrastructure from cyber criminals.”

Samir Mehta, Director, TAIT says, "Mumbai-based Trade Association of Information Technology (TAIT), the premier association of IT companies, welcomes the reduction of corporate tax for MSMEs and appreciates the big push for digital economy, cyber security measures and its belief in technology for achieving developmental goals. The GST implementation is promising and we look forward to it. The Union Budget 2017-18 has initiated growth and development of the IT industry."

“The union budget for 2017-18 endeavors to transform, energize and clean (TEC) Indian economy amidst an environment of growing aspirations of the people and global headwinds and post-demonetization environment. Enhanced investment in digital infrastructure; promotion of digital economy and cashless transactions; and, use of data analytics for improving tax compliance are welcome steps but proactive and prudent investments in cybersecurity are must for the desired outcomes.

While setting up of dedicated Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) for financial sector demonstrates the focus on cybersecurity, it would have been better to set aside 8 percent of the every digitalization project of the government exclusively for cyber security. Overall, it is a balanced and growth-oriented budget that should boost social development, economic growth and empowerment of citizenry” says Sanjay Rohatgi, Senior Vice President, Asia-Pacific and Japan, Symantec.

Vinay Sinha, Head of Sales – India, Director – Commercial Business, AMD Asia Pacific-Japan (APJ) Mega Region) says, “AMD welcomes the2017Budget announcement to connect over 250,000 gram panchayats using the National Fibre Optic Network. This will strengthen digital connectivity in India and pave the way for technology led growth in the most remote corners of our country. India is witnessing a digital revolution and the Government’s move to create an ecosystem for electronic manufacturing will provide the required impetus to make this region, a global hub for technology innovation.The establishment of 100 International Skill centres across the country will help increase the employability of the youth and support corporations in need ofgood talent especially in a context where there is growing foreign investment in India.”

Sunil Khanna, President & MD - India, Vertiv says, “We believe that the government has focused on creating an inclusive budget for a transparently governed country. It’s refreshing to see the government calling out digital economy as one of the major areas of focus as this will bring in a more transparent administration, enhancing finances for everyone. The move to incentivize merchants with rebates will accelerate the adoption of mobile and digital payment systems in India thus increasing the scope of financial services to the underbanked. Personally believe that this budget holds a lot of promise for skilling the youth in the country. This is something that various industry bodies including the CII, have always advocated. The fulfilment of the Bharat Net scheme along with schemes tailored for the MSME sector will help contribute to a viable and healthy start-up ecosystem.

The provision to support NABARD in digitizing 63,000 primary agro-operatives is a healthy move in order to penetrate rural sectors to achieve its goal of a Digital India. Considering the power deficit situation in the country, the proposal to feed 7000 railway stations with solar energy will help in reducing dependence on conventional energy sources. The almost 1/3rd increase in resource allocation towards Integrated Power Development Scheme and Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojna (from INR. 7874cr to INR. 10635cr) is also a step in the positive direction.”