Union Budget 2014 Aligns With Industry’s Sentiments

The much awaited Union Budget 2014 is finally here and as expected has received an overwhelming response from the IT industry in India, Thanks to the numerous goodies it has blessed to the crippling industries in the country.

The announcement to encourage local manufacturing, entrepreneurship and transparent governance to create an investor friendly, stable tax regime with retrospective decisions scrutinized by a high level committee is one among the primary reasons why it being cited as an industry friendly budget.

Here is what the Industry head honchos have to add on detailing the benefits of the Budget-:

‘’We welcome government’s decisions of allocating INR 7,060 crore for development of 100 smart cities and modernisation of satellite towns in the country, and an additional allocation of INR 3000 crore towards modernisation of police departments,’’ says Koichiro Koide,MD, NEC India

‘’This will promote investments in use of modern technology, making our cities smarter and safer. The government’s intent on giving infrastructure a boost gives us an opportunity to work with various bodies and organization to develop a safe and secure social infrastructure for the people of the country,’’ adds Koide.

Agreeing in a favorable tone Mehul Lanvers Shah, MD, HMFI India credits the budget for its aim to promote  transparency in the governance and to create an investor friendly atmosphere.

‘’The move to enable easy online sales for local manufacturers is a positive step towards developing the sector, and look forward to further measures that will attract investments in the IT/electronics manufacturing  arena where India remains much behind China in Global exports. The budget has been a particularly good one for the start-up ecosystem with the Finance Minister announcing a start-up fund of INR 10,000 crore and fund allocation worth INR 200 crore for young entrepreneurs.,’’ said Shah.

“This is a huge opportunity for the Indian IT industry to partner with the government in this initiative. Overall, the IT industry can rejoice at a budget that banks on technology intervention for development,’’ added Shah.

The fusing of INR 7,060 crore for the creation of smart cities across the country is bound to create enormous opportunities for the country’s IT vendors and is a ‘well done’ initiative by the government to work with the IT industry.

The industry experts too are welcoming the budget and cite it as a positive step forward in the government’s efforts to revive the economy and promote economic growth. The emphasis on the infrastructure and manufacturing sectors is particularly welcome as these are foundational for a nation at India’s stage of economic growth.

‘’The outlay of Rs. 7060 Crores on Smart Cities will not just push the frontier of urbanisation in India but also create a new set of markets for tech players across the industry spectrum. We estimate a minimum of Rs. 2,000 Crores flowing into the technology sector on the back of this initiative, says Jaideep Mehta, VP and General Manager, IDC South Asia.

‘’The e-governance program to inter-link all ministries and departments is welcomed. India urgently needs to improve the efficiency of government functioning. While the details are yet to be made available, this initiative is likely to yield several hundred crores of revenue to the IT industry. New employment and wealth creation opportunities will abound in the start up eco-system with the INR 10,000 Crore fund created to boost start ups and SMEs, adds Mehta.

The appreciative response from the Industry is enormous and we will keep adding them to our story so stay tuned to ItVARnews.