By Mahendra Nahata, MD, HFCL
‘We believe the budget 2022-23 aims to prioritise growth with its thrust on capital spending and generating employment opportunities for wider section of the economy. The budget also had positive announcements for the telecom industry, Defence and housing sector. As announced by the FM, the PLI scheme in 14 sectors has already received excellent response and has the potential to create 60 lakh new jobs, and an additional production of Rs. 30 lakh crore during the next 5 years. Required spectrum auctions will be conducted in 2022 to facilitate rollout of 5G mobile services within FY23 by private telecom providers. We believe that the expected spectrum rollout for 5G in 2022, combined with a scheme for design led manufacturing for 5G equipment under the PLI scheme will not only lead to advancement in the sector, but will also help to create employment opportunities. Being a leader in the production of optical fibre cables, we are delighted to hear that contracts for laying optical fibre in villages will be awarded under BharatNet project under PPP model in 2022-23. This will help the telecom industry in providing affordable broadband and mobile communication in rural and remote areas.
We also foresee an Atmanirbhar Bharat and reduced reliance on imports with the Government earmarking 68% of the capital procurement budget for domestic industry in 2022-23, up from 58% in 2021-22.’
By V Ranganathan, Managing Director, Cerebra Integrated Technologies – “The Budget is a positive one and we are glad to see a thrust on local manufacturing and the ‘Make in India’ program continues to be a focus area for the government. The Finance Minister has mentioned a policy for e-waste and reverse logistics as well as reduction in the duties for capital manufacturing goods. We are keen to see what this will mean for the e-waste recycling industry as the country is working towards meeting it’s climate targets.”
By Raj Srinivasaraghavan, CTO, SecureKloud Technologies Ltd
With booster doses to frontline sectors like infrastructure and agriculture, and first and second doses to most other sectors, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has adopted a universal vaccination policy to revive the economy. It is heartening to see that the IT and ITES sectors got their due dosage to accelerate the digital transformation. The proposed blockchain-driven new digital currency will obviously make the currency management system more transparent, immutable, cheaper and efficient. With stress on BharatNet, smart technologies, 5G spectrum proposals, the budget seems progressive and futuristic from a technological perspective. Though expected, the tax on virtual digital asset trade may put down some, but at the same time, it is a step forward in formalising and bringing in a regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies.