Latest Technology News Today – Get Latest Information Technology Updates and Services Latest Technology News Today – Get Latest Information Technology Updates and Services 
By Amit Singh
The Budget 2023 has unveiled big plans for artificial intelligence (AI) for realizing its vision of ‘Make AI in India’ and ‘Make AI Work for India.’ Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman also shared plans for boosting the 5G application ecosystem in India.
Overall, the 5th Union Budget from Sitharaman has laid a solid foundation and strengthened the economic outlook for India with its progressive, prudent, and technology-driven approach and an eye on boosting consumer demand by putting more money into the hands of the consumers. The ‘First Budget of Amrit Kaal,’ has set the vision for a technology-driven and knowledge-based economy, with strong public finances and a robust financial sector.
In a push for the technology industry, Budget 2023 proposed to allocate Rs 16,361 crore to the Ministry of Science & Technology for 2023-24. The allocation is over Rs 2000 crore more than what the ministry received in the previous budget. The jump in allocation to the ministry comes on the back of several big plans, including setting up new centers of excellence for Artificial Intelligence (AI) and labs for developing 5G apps.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has announced the setting up of three centers of excellence (CoE) for AI in top educational institutions to collaborate with industry players and conduct interdisciplinary research, developing cutting-edge applications and scalable solutions in the areas of agriculture, health, and sustainable cities. The aim is to establish a strong AI ecosystem in India and to train skilled AI professionals.
The Finance Minister also proposed establishing 100 labs in engineering institutions in collaboration with various authorities, regulators, banks, and other businesses for developing applications using 5G services.
Other major announcements for Technology, MSMEs, and Startup sectors
Technology:
To facilitate access to anonymized data, the National Data Governance framework has been suggested in the budget. A draft of this policy, under which the Centre will share non-personal data with Indian start-ups and researchers, was published by MeitY last year. Private companies will be ‘encouraged’ to share such data with start-ups.
The Budget announced phase-3 of the eCourts project, to be launched with an outlay of Rs 7,000 crore. Digital courts that “provide justice as a service to everybody, beyond simply replicating offline operations digitally” are what the third phase proposes.
A new solution for updating the identity and address of citizens will be established using DigiLocker and Aadhaar framework. Expanding the scope of DigiLocker will also enable Fintech services. An entity-based DigiLocker solution will be made available to MSMEs, corporations, and charity trusts.
Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana will be launched with courses on Industry 4.0 including coding, AI, robotics, mechatronics, IoT, 3D printing, drones, and soft skills. Additionally, the Skill India Digital Platform will be made available to promote access to entrepreneurship programs and enable demand-based formal skilling.
In order to offset the learning loss experienced during the pandemic years, the finance minister also announced the creation of a national digital library for kids and teenagers. This library would provide access to high-quality literature across geographies, languages, and genres.
MSMEs:
In a big relief to the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), Finance Minister has announced that the Credit Guarantee Scheme for MSMEs will be extended with an infusion of Rs 9000 crore. This will enable collateral for Rs 2 lakh crore loans to MSMEs and will boost fund flow to the distressed and fund-starved MSME sector. The proposed plan will become operative on April 1, 2023.
The Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS) of the government was previously extended from March 2022 to March 2023. Its guarantee cover was also increased by Rs 50,000 crore, bringing the total amount covered to Rs 5 lakh crore, with the extra money designated solely for the hospitality industry and affiliated businesses.
Additionally, the Budget has proposed making PAN a single business identity for all digital systems of all specified agencies of the government to lessen the compliance burden placed on businesses. The PAN could be used to automatically fetch common data and documents between systems. For ease of doing business, the Finance Minister also shared that over 3,400 legal actions and more than 39,000 compliances have been simplified and decriminalized.
Startups:
Asserting the importance of entrepreneurship for the economic development of the country, Finance Minister has proposed to extend the date of incorporation of startups by a year from March 31, 2023, to March 31, 2024, for income tax benefits.
The Finance Minister also proposed to extend the benefit of carrying forward losses on change of shareholding of start-ups to 10 years of incorporation, from the current seven years. The finance minister announced an agriculture accelerator fund to promote agriculture among youth. She said this fund would be set up to encourage Agritech startups by young entrepreneurs.
The budget measure comes when the startup sector is seeing a funding winter as investors only put in approximately $25 billion in Indian startups in 2022, a 40 percent drop from the $42 billion raised across 1,500+ deals in 2021.
itVARnews takes a look at the industry sentiments on the Budget 2023:
Arundhati Bhattacharya, Chairperson and CEO, Salesforce India
“The unified Skill India Digital Platform addresses the imperative of businesses and the government to do more to address the skills gap enabling inclusive development of talent. We are proud of the progress we have made over the last few years on Digital Public Infrastructure and a significant driver to this has been the innovation in Fintech, this budget is an impetus to further accelerate this growth with investments in AI, 5G, startups and more, accelerating demand and innovation at scale. Continued emphasis on Trust-based Governance and Ease of Doing Business, especially in a growth economy, has the potential to attract investments.”
Amit Chadha, CEO & MD, L&T Technology Services
“It was encouraging to see Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman share her vision of ‘Make AI in India and Make AI work for India,’ further highlighting the importance of building a strong AI ecosystem in India. We welcome the government’s move towards developing three AI excellence centers and 100 5G labs, as well as introducing the National Data Governance Bill, which will open up a wide range of opportunities for business growth and employment generation. Such a mass-scale enablement of digital transformation and innovation will unlock the full potential of the Indian engineering and technology sector. It will also result in complementing uptake of digital engineering capabilities resulting in the country maintaining its stronghold as a global preferred destination for engineering services.”
Venkatraman Narayanan, MD & CFO, Happiest Minds Technologies
“Digital has emerged as the hallmark of Union Budget 2023. Be it the setting up of AI-focused CoEs, or the Unified Digital Skilling platform, the role of digital technologies is empathetically at the forefront of India’s economic rise. It will be interesting to see how the paperless digital locker-based document storage and management for citizens shape up, as accordingly, it promises to open up a wave of opportunities in the domestic market related to cyber security, cloud, AI, and ML. While tax exceptions on exports are a welcome step, certain breathers on corporate tax would have complemented it well.”
Rajeev Sharma, Chief Strategy Officer, Mitsubishi Electric India
“I am sure that 33% growth in capital expenditure will result in balanced development. This is a smart move since it will help the country achieve its goal of becoming a $5 trillion economy and a global powerhouse. I believe that the announcement of setting up 100 labs to effectively develop 5G services and the vision to promote Artificial Intelligence in overall industries is a strong step by the government. This will further lead to automation in the industries which will help in propelling India’s growth and promoting smart cities. The union budget 2023 has come up with positive announcements for different sectors to support the Make in India initiative and can result in balanced growth in the near future.”
Arun Balasubramanian, Vice President & Managing Director, India & South Asia, UiPath
“For India to adopt and implement emerging technologies, a robust skilled workforce is needed. And the provision of the Skill India Digital Platform is the right step in making a highly skilled workforce. It will unify and enable demand-based formal skilling, which has been much needed to bridge the gap between academia and industry. With the Skill India Digital Platform and the proposed National Digital Library, we are confident that young Indians will have the resources to upskill in areas like AI, automation, and robotics, which will in turn make Digital India a reality. With the launch of The National Data Governance Policy, Indian users and companies can now access anonymized data, which will provide greater opportunities for innovation. These are exciting times for a tech-enabled India, and soon the country will become a talent powerhouse for the world.”
Manish Mimani, Founder & CEO, Protectt.ai
“It is encouraging to see the government focus on building a digitally-driven nation in the Union Budget. By expanding innovative services in the fintech space, along with announcing the vision of Make AI in India and Make AI Work for India, we have a lot to look forward. Though not explicitly highlighted in the Budget, we can also expect to see the cybersecurity landscape evolve and benefit from increased use of AI in operations, products, and services. In addition, the government’s relief measures for startups in areas of tax benefits and setting off losses comes as a welcome move, and will go a long way in encouraging the Indian startup ecosystem to continue to innovate.”
Vishak Raman, Vice President of Sales, India, SAARC and Southeast Asia, Fortinet
“The budget focuses on technology-driven growth, recognizing the potential of 5G by establishing 100 labs in engineering institutions to develop apps for various industries, including smart classrooms, precision agriculture, smart transport systems, and healthcare. The capital flowing into AI Startups last year was $2.7 billion globally. The race in AI is heating up after the success of ChatGPT and the budget has realized this potential with the vision of Make AI in India and Make AI Work for India. The setting up of 3 centers of excellence for artificial intelligence in top educational institutions will combine tech and computing power with some of the best engineering brain power in our country. The expansion of Digilocker and the establishment of e-courts are crucial for maintaining data privacy and security.”
Amit Luthra, Managing Director- India, Lenovo Infrastructure Solutions Group (ISG)
“The budget underscores the importance of data infrastructure and digital transformation across sectors. Whether it’s data repositories or the creation of data embassies, data management is here to stay. With its ‘Make AI in India,’ vision, the budget has also highlighted skilling initiatives for the youth in IoT, mechatronics, AI, and robotics. This is a very welcome direction and demonstrates the tech-first approach of the government. Emerging technologies such as AI, edge, and 5G have accelerated the speed at which data is generated and consumed. Together they are creating the digital architecture for industries of the future. The National Data Governance Policy will enable businesses, startups, and academia to have better access to data. I welcome this intent to create smarter technology for all.”
Sumeet Mathur, Vice President & Country Head, ServiceNow India Development Center
“The Government’s focus on developing a technology and youth-led economy will play a pivotal role in further strengthening India’s position as the ‘Bright Star’ across the globe. Policies like Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana 4.0 and National Education Policy are centered around encouraging industry participation to develop cutting-edge digital skills along with soft skills amongst the youth. This initiative will help in job creation as well as in the creation of a future resilient workforce, empowered for purposeful work at the intersection of technology and people. The emergence of no-code or low-code platforms along with Artificial Learning will boost the development of low barrier pathways in digital careers for the creation of a more inclusive workforce in this digital economy.”
Sudhindra Holla, Director, India & SAARC, Axis Communications
“We are optimistic about the government’s Saptarishi, or seven pillars, with a renewed emphasis on green growth. We are delighted with the Centre’s focus on tourism and investment in transportation infrastructure projects as this indicates an increase in demand for safety and surveillance solutions. We are aligned to further action India’s vision to transform our cities into ‘sustainable cities of tomorrow’. This will serve as a stepping stone in revitalizing Smart Cities planning and urban development. The budget 2023 has a future-ready outlook and compliments the nation’s unmatched growth for the digital economy, innovation, and inclusive development.”
Kuldeep Malhotra, Dy. Managing Director, Konica Minolta Business Solutions India
“We are delighted to see the Budget talk about training millions of youth within a period of the next three years under the government’s Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana 4.0. The scheme will also cover new-age courses for Industry 4.0, like coding, AI, robotics, mechatronics, IOT, 3D printing, drones, and soft skills. These are the technologies that will assist businesses across multiple fields to function smoothly. Additionally, the decision to set up 30 Skill India International Centers will open the doors of international markets to Indian youth.”
Triveni Rabindraraj, Head of Sales, GoTo India
“The renewed emphasis on growth in the MSME sector, women empowerment, and skilling is a welcome move as it strengthens inclusive and sustainable progress across all industries. The Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana 4.0, Make AI in India, and increased focus on 5G will prove to be a big push to bridge the talent gap and prepare country’s youth for Industry 4.0 by empowering them with new-age technology skills needed to make India one of the world’s preferred innovation hubs. These initiatives will level the playing field to enable MSMEs to invest in and improve their digital talent, enhance employee value proposition, and drive better business outcomes.”
