Budget 2022 offers an opportunity to implement structural reforms in the manufacturing, 5G, cryptocurrency sector to contribute to the growing GDP of India. The country got the maximum GST recordings this time around, and it has been a roaring success. The service sector has been a significant factor in propelling India’s economy. The manufacturing sector is also reaping its fruits, and more jobs will be created. In fact, in the Corona period the MSME businesses grew and this time around the startups are going to benefit a lot as well with Budget 2022.  Let’s see what the tech and gadgets industry have to say about Budget 2022. Mr Pradeep Bakshi, MD & CEO, Voltas Limited on Budget 2022 said, “Drawing inspiration from Atmanirbhar movement, Budget 2022 continues to provide impetus for growth in the domestic market. The measures introduced by the Finance Minister in Budget 2022 will not only support domestic capacity creation but also ease the raw material supply constraints. The approval of PLI scheme for white goods was a major milestone for consumer durables sector in India and we are pleased to see that the Government has unleashed plans for PLIs and Phased Manufacturing for other sectors, that are bound to grow rapidly in the coming years. At Voltas, we have been contributing towards nation building since our inception and we look forward to being a part of India’s growth story as it strives for development.” Vikas Jain, Co Founder and Ceo, World of Play said, “We support the government’s focus on technology, it will help many tech-based companies like WORLD OF PLAY to come up with exciting product experience for the Indian consumers. We welcome the focus of government on the wearables and acoustic component ecosystem and domestic manufacturing and believe on a long term, this focus will make India as a formidable design and manufacturing powerhouse. Additionally, the boost in ease of doing business and special impetus on creating 60 lakh new jobs will give a desired push to the goal of becoming Atma Nirbhar Bharat. As a brand, we promote and follow Make in India and we believe long-term policies like this will give us the desired support for the local design and also manufacturing in India.” Also Read: Union Budget 2022 highlights: Here is everything about top tech-related announcements and cryptocurrency Vijay Kumar Mikkilineni, Head of Marketing, TCL India said, “We welcome the Finance Minister’s increased focus on the consumer electronics industry and formation technology, which will definitely benefit all worldwide companies, including ours. The 2022 Union Budget allocated 1.97 lakh crore ($26 billion) for PLI projects, notably electronic components, which are among the 13 vital sectors that would undoubtedly help our economy expand. Furthermore, reduced customs taxes will encourage electronics manufacture, which will benefit the electronics industry.” “The FM announced a very progressive budget keeping a horizon and outlook of 3-4 years. The budget has covered multiple avenues for drone industry to rise, the focus on promoting Agricultural Drones and NABARD fund to support startups will result in ensuring that the Drone Industry reach a new milestone. The development of 100 new cargo terminals in the next 3 years will also add to the growth of Drones enabled to use for cargo deliveries within the terminals and terminals to delivery locations. The budget has been a very guiding force towards our Hon’ble PM’s vision for “Making India a Global Drone Hub by 2030” said Swapnik Jakkampudi, Co-Founder, Skye Air Mobility. Mr P B Balaji, Group CFO, Tata Motors, said “Budget 2022 is an articulation of purposeful intent enabled by a clear action plan. Building on the excellent budget of last year, the government has wisely continued on the path of prioritizing economic growth with calibrated fiscal prudence. For the Indian automobile sector, which is a significant contributor to the nation’s GDP, the budget offers continuity and also additional opportunities to drive multi-year growth. Specifically, the robust increase in capex by 35.4% to Rs. 7.5 lakh crore and a comprehensive investment plan for infrastructure is a significant growth booster. Additionally, the launch of the well-conceived PM Gati Shakti program for multi modal transport including 100 cargo terminals and investments in 25000Kms of highways, apart from investments in ports and metros is an excellent development that will help create a world class transport infrastructure in the country. This will reduce logistics costs and transit times, increase employment and make us globally competitive with avenues for better and efficient mobility solutions. Additionally, plans to create EV charging infrastructure including national policy for battery swapping which when combined with the already announced Automotive PLI scheme, furthers the agenda for green mobility. Tata Motors welcomes this balanced, thought through budget.” Mr Mughilan Thiru Ramasamy, CEO & Co-founder Skylark Drones said, “The union budget and the initiatives announced by the honourable Finance Minister continue to provide impetus to the growth of the drone industry in India. The introduction of drone shakti is a welcome move and will ensure business momentum and drive faster adoption of UAVs in the country. It is encouraging to see the government promoting Digital India and digitisation of various sectors through the integration of UAVs through varied applications and drones as a service. India with its vast natural resources spanning from agriculture, minerals, and great infrastructure is finally getting the much-required momentum to become digital. The announcement to promote the use of ‘Kisan drones’ in the agricultural sector as part of the Budget for 2022-23 will enable the drone industry to collaborate with our farmers to improve operational efficiency and maximize profitability. This is a welcoming move and will make India’s agricultural sector future ready.” “We welcome the Finance Minister’s announcement during Budget 2022 to set up an Animation, Visual Effects, Gaming, and Comics (AVGC) task force with the objective of building domestic capacity to serve our markets and global demand. Gaming is a soon-to-be trillion-dollar industry, and it is heartening to see that the Government of India has acknowledged the exponential potential that this sector holds. As a giant step towards contributing to the same, WinZO launched the country’s first-ever national-level scholarship program called B.O.S.S (Battle of Super Scholars) and unveiled a $26M Game Developer’s fund with an aim to provide a platform to the best minds to disrupt this emerging global gaming industry. WinZO, as a leading game tech company, will be willing to work with public stakeholders to attract the best talent to this growing industry.”by Paavan Nanda, Co-founder, WinZO. CP Gurnani, MD & CEO, Tech Mahindra, said, “The budget truly echoes India’s vision towards inclusive development and building a truly ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ by providing a blueprint for the economy over ‘Amrit Kal’ from India at 75 to India at 100. FM’s key announcements on blockchain and setting up e-passports with futuristic technologies are a step in the right direction to help India emerge as a global technology leader. The focus on innovation and R&D (Research and Development) with an emphasis on strengthening talent capacity through STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) universities and skilling courses in IIT’s will enable India to become a global hub for skilled talent. Overall, Budget 2022 promises to provide the much-needed impetus to sustain India’s economic and digital growth.” “Union Budget 2022 sets the pace for the Indian Economy’s growth trajectory amidst the challenges brought forth by the pandemic. The big boost to capital expenditure is welcome and it would give a fillip to the Indian economy. For the automobile sector, we welcome the ‘PM Gati Shakti Master Plan’ focusing on building world-class infrastructure and improved connectivity for commuters. The strong push towards augmenting agricultural productivity should help enable buoyant rural demand.  In the electric mobility space, we strongly support the measures undertaken by Government to promote clean and green mobility, mainly introducing the battery-swapping policy will be instrumental in supporting an efficient EV ecosystem. There is an impactful thrust towards renewable energy incentives with an increased focus on reducing infrastructural waste for a greener tomorrow.  We appreciate the Government’s vision of building the skilling ecosystem for youth in India, which will play a critical role in driving innovation in the industry.” by Venu Srinivasan, Chairman, TVS Motor Company. Alok Dubey, Chief Financial Officer, Acer India, said, “The Union Budget announced today showcased the government’s initiative towards Digital Transformation. From announcing a Digital University, for online learning to high-quality e-content across languages will enable the youth to skill, upskill and reskill themselves. These programs under digital learning and the connectivity expansion will further strengthen the availability and accessibility of the internet in rural areas. With Govt infrastructure spending push, we are likely to see more employment and growth opportunities and enhanced private sector investment in manufacturing. We are confident that the exemption of duty on parts of select electronic items will further boost the domestic manufacturing of electronics goods under the PLI scheme. Overall, the Union Budget 2022-23 is a promising budget and a step forward towards ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’.” “This is the Digital Revolution Budget. We welcome the government’s emphasis on creating new digital touchpoints to empower multiple aspects of our society and supercharge the startup ecosystem. New initiatives across currency, banking, education, skilling, health, passports, and logistics will enable a large part of the country to benefit from India’s growing digital revolution. The government’s focus on augmenting India’s road, rail, and telecom infrastructure will help further accelerate growth opportunities across Bharat.” by Kunal Bahl, Co-founder & CEO, Snapdeal. Rajiv Bhalla, MD, Barco India said, The emphasis on growth, digitization and being future ready outlines the government’s commitment to cohesive development and ‘Make in India’. Focus on Gati Shakti masterplan, youth, women, job creation, technology and infrastructure development among others will drive India’s Amrit Kal, journey from 75 to 100 years as a democracy. India has the potential to be a world-class infrastructure centre, and the Budget has provided enough impetus to propel the same. In addition, we expect the digital ecosystem for skilling will boost human capital and empower industries significantly. Mr A Gururaj, MD, Optiemus Electronics Ltd said, “The industry has been completely galvanized under the pioneering initiative of PLI scheme, with Hon’ble FM today stating that it has potential to create 60 Lakh new jobs and additional production of 30 lakh crores. This is also a clarion call to the industry to work much harder in the years to come to make it a reality.  On a macro level, the scheme around design-led manufacturing as part of the PLI scheme would fasten the development of the ecosystem, and also changes in customs duty will drive greater domestic value addition in Electronics manufacturing in the country, which has grown rapidly in the last few years.” Agendra Kumar, Managing Director, Esri India, said, “Union Budget 2022 has announced the PM Gati Shakti program as one of the priority areas of the government. Seven engines of the PM Gati Shakti initiative are roads, railways, airports, ports, mass transport, waterways and logistics infra. As the Indian economy moves towards strengthening these initiatives, geospatial technology will gain more prominence in the process. As shared by the Hon’ble Finance Minister, the Gati Shakti program would involve huge investments in construction of about 25,000 Kms of highways, multimodal transport, and modernization of land records. These are welcome steps, and GIS and other geospatial technologies will facilitate efficient implementation of these schemes. With the launch of Jal Jeevan Mission (Urban), the government is aiming at universal water supply in all 4,378 Urban Local Bodies with 2.86 crores household tap connections, as well as liquid waste management in 500 AMRUT cities. GIS based water distribution network planning, execution and operations will go a long way in bringing these plans to fruition more quickly and efficiently.” Vikram Kumar, Co-founder, MyTat(Skilling Startup) said, “Budget 2022 gave a major and much needed thrust to digital skilling with initiatives like Digital DESH. Emphasis on a digital ecosystem for skilling and livelihood points to the much-needed market oriented digital skills development”. “ It has been the industry’s request for some time to bring digital assets and currency in the regulatory framework and it is heartening to note that the Hon’ble FM and Hon’ble PM have recognised the sector. Taxation and TDS on Digital Assets have come as a sudden move for the industry. It might hit user sentiments in the short term; however, we shall see how the ecosystem evolves in the country and are committed to work as per the rule of the land.” by Arun Pandey, Co-founder, Beyondlife.club Also Read: Union Budget 2022 highlights: Here is everything about top tech-related announcements and cryptocurrency Suraj Malik, Partner, BDO India (M&A) said, Budget has laid out foundation for the pillars of growth without too much tinkering in the tax laws. FM has focused on digital and tech enabled macro growth with micro participation backed by incentives and targeted policy reforms to support MSME, startups, innovation and domestic manufacturing.  Reduction in surcharge rates and stability in tax policy will boost investor sentiment. Mr Avneet Singh Marwah, CEO SPPL, Exclusive Brand Licensee of THOMSON in India said, “This budget has been more like announcements and slogans, I’m surprised how FM missed on health and education, which are two main pillars of the economy, despite the pandemic. Coming back to consumer electronics, on one hand the government talks about how electronics will contribute 1 trillion to the economy and on the other for consumer electronics no major announcements, no roadmaps have been given to the industry. The Government should have assured to reduce the GST tax slab from 28% to 18%, despite collecting more than 1 lakh cr on MoM basis.Few signs of encouragement that 5G will be launched this year, this will have a direct impact on sales of televisions. As consumers will upgrade to smart TV’s and will have better content quality. The Government has spoken about adding 80 lakhs affordable homes, which will benefit the consumer electronics industry. Apart from that we were expecting big announcements on inflation, income tax, manufacturing sector etc which could have improved market sentiments.” “The budget gave a futuristic feel of things to come with focus on technology and enabling digital for the country’s growth. The government’s support to startups involved in drone tech will help fulfill the dreams of drone deliveries. The support on EV infrastructure will be a boon for startups in the EV space. With respect to taxations, the reduction in long term capital gains taxation will certainly benefit startups. Quite a few things were desired for the startup space, but these are welcome moves” by Mr Ravi Mittal, Founder & CEO of QuackQuack “Extending ECLGS with an increase in allocation from 50 thousand to 5 lakh crore is a welcome step by the Indian Government to empower the hardest Covid-hit MSMEs to cope with the challenges arising out of the Pandemic Situation” by Mr Rajesh Gupta, CTO & Co-founder at BUSY Accounting Software  No explicit rise in the stock market post-budget announcement is a clear indicator that the business community isn’t really excited. There is not much for startups except for the upsurge in Tax Incentives concerning three to four years old incorporations. Overall the government is eyeing stability post the third Covid wave, which is demonstrated less aggressive in Budget 2022 by Mr Siddhartha Vanvani, Founder & CEO, Digidarts. Mr Rajeev Sharma, Chief Strategy Officer, Mitsubishi Electric India Pvt. Ltd. said, “This is a growth-oriented Budget, I am sure that stepping up the capital expenditure sharply by 35.4% will have an incremental effect on the overall growth of the economy. It is good that the policy makers understand that nearly half of our population is likely to be living in urban areas by 2047, when India is at 100. The announcement for urban capacity building like mass transit, planning help, etc. would act as a good principle for development of the country. The budget has demonstrated a good balance between today’s needs and the future’s demand.” For the latest gadget and tech news, and gadget reviews, follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. For newest tech & gadget videos subscribe to our YouTube Channel. You can also stay up to date using the Gadget Bridge Android App. You can find the latest car and bike news here.