Post- Budget Quote: Ashwani Rawat & Amarsh Chaturvedi, Co-Founder & Director, Transerve
“The Union Budget 2021 can be rightly considered as path-breaking as it was the ground-level of the country and not just sector-specific. The budget laid much-needed importance to the country’s healthcare system considering the recent and ongoing Covid pandemic by allocating Rs 64,180 crore for Atmanirbhar Swasthya Yojana, thus strengthening healthcare in India. We also appreciate an outlay of Rs 1.41 lakh for Urban Swachh Bharat 2.0 Mission, Rs 2.87 lakh crore for Jal Jeevan Mission Urban, Rs 1.41 lakh crore for Urban Clean India Mission and announcement of 5 new Smart Cities under PPP mode in collaboration with states, to reinforce the Urban India. Technology being the core suite to build on a successful business ecosystem, we welcome allocation of Rs 8,000 crore for National Mission on Quantum Computing & technology and building data centre parks. The honourable Finance Minister has left no stones unturned to give a boost to new age technology like AI, ML and Data Analytics across sectors with the launch of MCA Version 3.0 which shall target simplification of E-Scrutiny, E-Adjudication and Compliance management.”
IT/Ites
Post- Budget Quote: Mr. M. Natarajan, SVP- Head of Finance & Accounts, JK Technosoft
“The Union Budget 2021-22 is applaudable at various levels. While as expected by many there were no exemptions in the tax slab, but providing exemption to the elderly for filing the return is a great action to reduce the compliance burden for the senior citizens. We also appreciate the Finance Minister’s decision to constitute a Dispute Resolution Committee to ensure efficiency, transparency and accountability under which anyone with a taxable income up to `50 lakh and disputed income up to `10 lakh shall be eligible to approach the committee for resolving disputes. We commend the Government’s decision to smoothen the GST structure to remove anomalies such as the inverted duty structure. Further, digitization of GST by deploying deep analytics and Artificial Intelligence to identify tax evaders and fake billers and launch of special drives against them is a praiseworthy action. We also appreciate the Government’s focus on new-age technology like Data Analytics, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning under which it will launch MCA21 Version 3.0 involving additional modules for e-Scrutiny, e-Adjudication, e-Consultation and Compliance Management.”
Startup
Post- Budget Quote: Mr. Sangeet Kumar, CEO & Co-Founder, Addverb Technologies
“Budget 2021 focuses on enhancing productivity by incentivising the use of technology to make India ‘Atmanirbhar’ and future-ready. As the future of manufacturing is driven with robotics and other automation technologies, we appreciate the announcement of PLI schemes to create manufacturing global champions under AtmaNirbhar Bharat for 13 sectors related to electronic manufacturing. The Government also announced to extensively use data analytics, artificial intelligence & machine learning for the roll out of MCA21 portal version 3.0. This version 3.0 will have additional modules for e-scrutiny, e-Adjudication, e-Consultation and compliance Management. Also, as upskilling programs are required to make the workforce ready to work with robots and other automation, the budget played a lot of attention to machine learning driven programmes and setting up of data centre parks to promote R&D. We highly appreciate the proposal of extending the tax holiday for start-ups for one more year and Tax relief for startup employees on deferment of tax payment on ESOPs by 5 years.”
Education
Post – Budget Quote: Prof (Dr.) Sanjiv Marwah, Director, JK Business School
“The budget presented by the honorable Finance Minister tried to address many facets of the educational sector. The overall allocation of Rs. 93224 Cr for the education sector is a welcoming announcement. The budget emphasized the recent trend of tinkering at the edges of the problems that confront Indian Education System. Madam Finance Minister announced strengthening of more than 15,000 schools, starting 750 Eklavya schools and 100 new Sainik schools which will have a great impact on the school education. On the other hand, Legislation of the Higher Education Commission of India will resolve the various challenges faced by higher education in our country. The budget consists of the apt strategies which will help in speedy implementation of National Education Policy (NEP).
Another point which deserves huge appreciation in the budget is the development of the National Research Foundation, which outlayed Rs.50,000 Cr over 5 years. It will strengthen the overall research ecosystem of the country and help India emerge as the R&D epicentre of the world.”
MSME
Post- Budget Quote: Mr. Vinay Jain, Founder and CEO, Grafdoer
The Union Budget FY 21-22 has brought a ray of hope for the general public as the government has extended eligibility of tax SOP on home loan, which is beneficial for the sanitary-ware industry, and will also provide tax exemption for affordable rental housing projects. Moreover, the new custom duty structure that has been introduced on the steel products is somewhat a relief as it has reduced duties on copper from 5% to 2.5%, it has also cut duty on copper scrap from 5% to 2.5%, and exempted duty on steel scrap for a specified period. The industry has seen a hike in the products comprising metal constituents but this will now, somehow help the manufacturers to see stability in the pricing of the products and is a matter of relief for the people.
Mr. Satish Kannan, Co-Founder & CEO, MediBuddy on Budget 2021
The Union Budget 2021 will indeed be transformational for the healthcare sector in India. We were initially eyeing a marginal increase in the budget allocations and were rewarded with a record increase of 137% and Rs 2,23,846 crore has been allotted for the healthcare sector, exceeding our expectations. The new PM Aatmanirbhar Swasthya Bharat Yojna scheme seems propitious focusing on preventive, curative and health wellness. The government keeping an enduring outlay in mind has focused on gradually increasing and strengthening the operations of healthcare units across the country, in both rural and urban areas. The focal point seems to be making healthcare accessible for all. The budget also mentioned provisions for reducing air pollution, water pollution and improving nutrition, which are also necessary as they are often the underlying causes of many diseases. The government’s step to allocate 35,000 crores for the Covid-19 vaccine rollout is also truly welcome.
We are also happy that the government has laid down measures and provisions for expanding the telemedicine and health tech sector, considering the pivotal role it has played in providing primary care amid the pandemic. The plan to retain the tax benefits for startups for one more year is also a welcome measure.
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