As India gears up for its highly anticipated Elections, Finance Minister Mrs. Nirmala Sitharaman delivered her 2024 Interim Budget while the BJP continues its 10-year reign. This highly anticipated budget session brought about a plethora of positive results for the upcoming fiscal year. With widespread praise from financial experts and a stellar 8/9 rating, both the Modi government and Mrs Sitharaman were rightfully applauded. However, the tech industry’s top-notch minds have been abuzz with conversations and fascinating insights on the most notable aspects of the budget.
This is what they have to say about Indian budget 2024:
Ravi Kunwar, Vice President – India & APAC at HMD Global
“The Interim Budget is forward-looking and represents the remarkable evolution of India’s mobile and telecom landscape in the last decade, standing true to our expectations. The allocation towards the development of electronics manufacturing clusters unlocks the accessibility of high-quality technology for varied consumers, including those at the bottom of the pyramid. Additionally, the proposal to further provide relief in customs duty on the import of battery covers, main lenses, back covers, and mechanical items will boost the Make in India initiation and solidify the mobile manufacturing ecosystem in the country.
This reduction, coupled with the establishment of a one-lakh-crore corpus supported by a fifty-year interest-free loan, will empower the private sector to significantly advance research and innovation in sunrise domains. Despite the industry’s growth, there is substantial room for expansion in India, and we are optimistic that supportive government policies, infrastructure investments, and a vibrant innovation ecosystem will unleash the next wave of digital transformation.”
Amit Khatri, Co-Founder, Noise.
“The Interim Union Budget 2024 presented by FM Nirmala Sitharaman reflects the Government’s undeterred focus on inclusive growth. The focus on boosting employability through training and skill development, along with the significant support to foster the entrepreneurial spirit of Indian youth through 43 crore loans amounting to Rs. 22.5 lakh Crore, is indeed a commendable step towards pushing India’s growth at the global stage. These reforms encourage us to work towards India’s vision to become a developed nation by 2047 through enhanced capability and empowerment.
Being a homegrown brand, we believe that the initiatives like PM Mudra Yojana & Start Up India will play a crucial role in catalysing the growth of the startup ecosystem in India and eventually further strengthen the ‘Make in India’ efforts. We appreciate the economic policies adopted to foster growth, improve productivity, increase opportunity, and fulfil aspirations through strategic technological advancements. Driven by the vision of Vikasit and Aatmanirbhar Bharat, we look forward to actively participating in the nation’s journey towards global prominence and innovation leadership.”
Arijeet Talapatra, CEO of TECNO Mobile India.
“The decision of Ministry of Finance to reduce import duties on smartphone components and spare parts is a remarkable move. This strategic move aligns with the industry’s collective request to rationalize duty structures, transitioning from 15% to 10%, thereby fostering enhanced competitiveness for the Indian smartphone sector on both domestic and international fronts. This favourable development will serve as a significant catalyst for smartphone manufacturing entities, TECNO included, deeply committed to the principles of ‘Make-in-India.’ TECNO is steadfast in its commitment to fostering industry growth through the augmentation of manufacturing and supply chain operations within India.”
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Nikhil Rajpal, CEO, Hero Electronix
“In the unveiling of the Interim Union Budget 2024, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has strategically charted out a path not just for driving economic growth, but for a transformative era of inclusive prosperity.
The strategic emphasis on empowering entrepreneurship with robust financial support is a game-changer. It paves the way for innovation-led development, mirroring our own ambition to be at the forefront of ‘Viksit Bharat’, and resonates deeply with our vision of building successful technology businesses out of India.
This budget is not just a financial statement; it’s a blueprint for a resilient and self-reliant India, capturing the spirit of ‘Sabka Prayas’ and our collective resilience through challenging times.
As we at Hero Electronix (Qubo) stay buoyed by the government’s sustained support, we are more committed than ever to be instrumental in India’s journey. It’s a journey not just towards economic success, but towards establishing India as a beacon of innovation and visionary leadership on the world stage.”
Trideep Bhattacharya, President & Chief Investment Officer- Equities, Edelweiss MF
“In an election year, the budget adeptly strikes a balance, prioritizing sensibility over populism. It showcases India’s unwavering commitment to infrastructure development, coupled with a steadfast adherence to fiscal prudence. This paves the way for sustained growth, steering the nation along the trajectory towards achieving a developed economy by 2047.”
Pallavi Singh, Senior Vice President, Super Plastronics Pvt Ltd, a brand licensee of White-Westinghouse
“The facilitation of a 34 crore loan for women entrepreneurs, along with the 43% female enrollment in STEM courses and the allocation of 1/3 seats in government, reflect a commitment to equal representation. Women setting up their own businesses will lead to job creation for the same gender, and recent studies have shown that empowering women economically leads to increased GDP and poverty reduction, benefiting families and communities. Overcoming various challenges and barriers as a woman entrepreneur in India is not an easy feat, and with encouragement from the government, this will provide a boost, especially to those from economically weaker backgrounds. Increased women’s entrepreneurship is also a step towards global collaboration and will provide India with an additional platform to expand networks and access global markets.”
Manoj Nair, Head of India GDC, Fujitsu India
“We welcome India’s Union Budget 2024-25 unveiled today and applaud the Indian Government for putting digitalization, inclusive and sustainable development, and enhanced capabilities and contribution to the generation of resources to power investments at the core. As the demand for tech talent surges, the Government’s Skill India Mission has played a pivotal role in stemming the talent gap in the IT industry. With 1.4 crore youth upskilled and reskilled the announcement of higher learning institutions including IITs and IIMs will help India address the AI skill crunch and bridge the gap effectively. Additionally, the Government’s corpus of Rs 1 lakh crore with a 50-year interest-free loan will encourage the private sector to scale up research and innovation significantly in sunrise domains. This will be a big boost for tech-savvy youth and help the Nation strengthen capabilities in the deep tech sector. The government’s continued focus on EV ecosystem is indeed a pragmatic step forward and will continue to help India succeed in achieving its long-term decarbonization objectives. This is an exciting time for the country’s green industrial and economic transition. At Fujitsu, we are committed to providing sustainable transformation and supporting green growth and we shall continue as strong partners in helping the nation in its journey towards net-zero!”
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Rajesh Doshi Director & Cofounder at Zebronics
“The Union Budget 2024 demonstrates a continued focus on the tech landscape, emphasizing inclusive growth across various sectors such as agriculture, finance, health, and diverse communities that empowers the economy across all sectors. The Skill India mission has resulted in robust training, re-skilling and upskilling of the youth which underscores the goals to enhance ‘Atma Nirbhar India’ thereby the proclivity towards more local manufacturing, Research & Development will eventually make India a true leader in manufacturing at a global scale. The comprehensive approach towards channelising efforts into the Start-up community, women entrepreneurs, provision of fundamental needs to the nook & corner of the country is the face of an upward trajectory. We wish to see more scalable changes in the coming years into the tax regimes where the maximum benefits would be reaped by our country’s young gen.”
Shauryam Gupta, CEO, Rupeezy
Being an interim budget, some degree of populism was expected. On the contrary, it was a budget of fiscal prudence clearly outlining the fiscal deficit targets for the next two years. The 2024 interim budget showcases commendable fiscal responsibility with substantial infrastructure investments. The budget prominently emphasized affordable housing, clean energy, and technological advancement as key priorities for the government.
Overall, the budget highlights the government’s forward-thinking vision for ensuring the country’s sustainable development, as stated in the budget speech aimed at propelling India towards becoming a developed nation by the year 2047.
Avneet Singh Marwah, CEO, Super Plastronics Pvt Ltd, a Kodak brand Licensee
“This budget has truly laid the foundation for the next 5 years with several important aspects taken into consideration. GoI’s plan to build 2 Cr houses under PM Awas Yojna Gramin will surely give a boost to the consumer durables industry in the country and enable the people to live in their own house. This will be assisted by rooftop solarisation for electricity. Additionally, larger availability of credit for the private sector will surely help the companies to upscale their operations in the country. We were surely expecting a change in the income tax slabs to support the middle-class population which happens to be the highest taxpayer class in the country but that has surely not happened. Additionally, a reduction in GST on LED TVs above the sizes of 32 inches from 28% to 18% was expected which didn’t happen.”
Amit Tripathi – Managing Director icogz
“The budget allocated Rs 8,000 crore for the National Mission on Quantum Technologies and Applications, which aims to boost research and innovation in quantum computing, communication, cryptography, and artificial intelligence. This is as per expected lines and what I had predicted in my pre budget expectations.
The budget also proposed to set up a Data Centre Economic Zone to attract investments and create employment opportunities in the data centre industry, which is expected to grow at a CAGR of 23% by 2025. Again on expected lines.
The budget increased the tax deduction at source (TDS) on e-commerce transactions from 1% to 2%, which may affect the profitability and cash flow of e-commerce platforms and sellers.”
Anand Dubey, CEO, Indkal Technologies.
“We applaud the Finance Minister for the astute measures taken in the budget to enhance the financial sector’s size, capacity, skills, and regulatory framework. These initiatives are pivotal in fortifying the foundation of our economy. Additionally, the commitment to ensuring energy security for businesses across sectors is commendable, providing a robust foundation for sustained economic growth. We look forward to leveraging these enhancements to further contribute to the nation’s progress and prosperity.”
