As the financial year is about to end, the budget for the year will be announced soon. With the hope of a strong focus on emerging technologies, leading companies expect the budget’s focus towards technologies such as analytics, hybrid cloud, IoT, mobility, smart city initiatives, the creation of business opportunities. Last year expectations which were crushed due to the implementation of GST, hence this time there is high hope with new establishments.
Few of the industry stalwarts presented their views as well with their recent expectations with this year’s budget.
“Technology is disrupting every sector, be it retail, cement, e-commerce or media. Big Data is the oil that is fuelling advanced analytics and better decision making for business entities. 5G will be the next disruptive technology as it will help capture a lot more data at much faster speeds,” says Partho Dasgupta, CEO, BARC India.
The Stalwarts are also expecting importance given to the skilling of emerging employees, referring to the increasing demand for skilled employees in the fields of Analytics and Artificial Intelligence industry, which are one of the fastest emerging industries to grow.
“With technology disrupting jobs across sectors, it is important to bridge the skilling gap,” says Nikhil Barshikar, Founder and MD at Imarticus Learning. He says that this year’s budget should focus on skill development as it will directly impact the economy for the better. “We strongly feel the need for allocating more funds towards specialization i.e. Higher & Further Education, with the vision of enhancing the training and the research amenities for reskilling the workforce. Tax rebates and incentive schemes will encourage educational institutions to expand their operations in Tier 2 & 3 cities”, he adds.
Sampreeth Reddy Samala, Founder and CEO, Worldview Education is also expecting a tech-driven future through efforts by the Govt. to introduce technology as a subject in the school’s curriculum. “From that view, potentially game-changing tax reforms in the education space are still pending. Today, every and any educational idea which falls out of the traditional realm is taxed at par with some of the luxury products. This has to change to make investments into ‘innovative ideas in education’ attractive which is crucial to meet the larger & current needs of an aspiring country like India,” he said.
He also mentioned efforts by NITI Aayog in introducing AI which is the prominent step towards the Digital India Vision.
Expecting the Digital Transformation through the Union Budget 2019-20, Beas Dev Ralhan, CEO, NextEducation India Pvt. Ltd. said “AI and data analytics are changing the face of education with adaptive learning technology, which can help the K–12 learners in India get a quality education at low costs. AI-powered educational apps can also share teachers’ workload by helping them give individualized attention to students.”
“One of the critical focus areas for the Government has been job creation and skill development. Much of this is going to happen on the back of technology. We expect this budget to provide a boost to emerging technologies like AI and Data Science which if taught well through proper skill development initiatives, hold immense potential for the creation of new jobs. The budget should recognize this opportunity and leverage it to tackle the challenge of job creation,” says Ishan Gupta, MD India, Udacity.
Sidharth Gupta, Chief Revenue Officer, Mercer- Mettl, also expects India to profound as the largest tech disruptors in the world, says “However, to grow it further, a stronger thrust on research and development in disruptive technologies such as automation, advanced analytics, the blockchain, internet of things, artificial intelligence and machine learning is the need of the hour. Hence, we expect Government to definitely increase research budgets for Top Tech Colleges in India.”
Anupam Bhat, CFO, and Co-Founder, Goals101 stressed on to the fact that the Fintech has begun transforming the financial services ecosystem while the Govt. also intends to provide a clear environment making the further implementation of policies easier.
“As the hotbed of the next billion Internet users, Fintech companies would increasingly look at serving rural India. Increasing digital transactions penetration would require concerted awareness efforts and it is hoped that the budget would account for incentives to companies looking to invest in and grow this market. As data security and privacy becomes increasingly critical, it is expected that the Government, through the budget and other policy measures, would balance this against the commercial realities of viable operating in the Fintech space and thereby bring invaluable information and benefits for the consumers at large,” he said.
Looking at the start-up trend being so famous, Surajit Das, Co-Founder, and CEO, Routematic, expresses his concern over the challenges faced by the entrepreneurs despite the Govt’s various regulations to promote entrepreneurs.
“This time start-ups, SMEs and entrepreneurs are expecting this budget to abolish angel tax for Government recognized start-ups. This will unleash its own potential and will help Start-ups to grow by leaps and bounds. The early stage startups will also be nurtured with more investments,” said Surajit Das, Co-Founder, and CEO, Routematic.
With having similar views, Anupam Bhat presented issues with angel Taxes faced by entrepreneurs and unlisted companies. “The interim budget would hopefully reconsider provisions of the Income Tax Act as applicable to investments in unlisted companies by investors. This shall provide much-needed relief to the startup space and promote innovation, which is one of the current requirements for the Indian economy,” he said.
Keeping in mind the requirement of huge funds for the research and development of electronic products and semiconductors, Startups dealing in Artificial Intelligence advises govt to abolish Angel Tax. “We recommend the government to abolish the Angel Tax for ESDM startups and the government should create a seed fund of 1000 Crore which can be matched by industry and VCs to provide seed funding to build 1000 startups ESDM space,” says Rajesh Ram Mishra, President of IESA.
He also advises to allow a separate budget for the research and development of electronic products and semiconductors and establish collaborations R&D with PSU’s and Indian SME’s and start-ups.
“On the startup fronts, while considering special aids/funding government should also reduce the corporate tax rate, which will not only help Indian companies to stay competitive but will also lead to an increase in entrepreneurship and employment,” says Siddharth Gupta.
Asserting the emerging start-ups addressing huge interest in Automation and AI, “A lot of global private equity, angel investors and VCs are looking to invest in these start-ups. It would be useful to provide absolute clarity on Angel tax provisions to provide a further push for investments in this space. Similarly, given the geographical spread of operations on startups in the Analytics, AI and Automation space, the need for clarity on POEM and tax provisions will make the business function more efficiently,” says GS Venkatraman, Chief Financial Officer, Subex.
Sangram Singh, CEO, Freecharge also addresses the fact that with upcoming years, India will witness huge growth with digital payments, money transfers, consumer lending etc.
“To strengthen this growth, we hope the budget can encourage the upgradation of digital infrastructure and digital literacy – especially in small towns and rural India, which will help drive financial inclusion through digitization. Some of the recent initiatives such as UPI 2.0 and tokenization provide a good opportunity for banks, e-wallets, and other players in the fintech sphere to promote digital adoption,” he said.
He also adds that companies like Fintech should add more offerings, innovation to strengthen customer experience and also to strengthen the digital transformation of the country.
“From the 2019 budget, we are expecting more impetus to be provided to Open APIs, which will further innovation in sectors like the financial services industry, and Data Privacy and Protection, which will allow more people to embrace digitization safely,” says Saptorsi Hore, Chief Operating Officer, ThoughtWorks.
“As skill development is key for the adoption and successful application of disruptive technologies – tax deductions for individuals and companies who are investing in training on emerging technologies will help in further the goals of Digital India,” he said.
“In order to foster a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship in the country, the government should invest in initiatives by making digital resources and services easily available for all,” says Siddharth Gupta.
“RBI has developed a framework for financial sector participants. A similar framework for Telecom and other sectors, would be able to leverage the information and make it available for interested end customers in a mutually beneficial commercial model, will go a long way to drive usage and adoption of high-end analytics in the country,” says GS Venkatraman, Chief Financial Officer, Subex.
“Proof of concepts (PoCs) using Blockchain technology in areas like payment services, agriculture, financial exchanges, infrastructure, education, healthcare, among other sectors have been a great step forward to improve interoperability through digitization and to enhance efficiency through the creation of trusted networks,” says Saptorsi Hore, Chief Operating Officer, ThoughtWorks.
Concluding with the fact that last year it was observed that a few very interesting developments took place by the government in the field of Artificial Intelligence, the industry is expecting a budget announcements in its favor with govt’s support to innovative ventures so as to make India considered to be a showing technological advancement this year.
“Emerging and innovative ventures can drastically transform the government sector, especially areas like law and order, policing etc. We believe that in order to foster innovation, the government would make it easier for the start-ups to participate in government projects and disrupt the status quo”, says Atul Rai, CEO, and Co-founder of Staqu.