New Delhi: Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is going to present the Union Budget 2020 on 1st February 2020 and several industry insiders have started flooding their wishlist from Modi 2.0. Like any other industry, leaders from the technology-based firms also have their set of opinions on how the budget is going to shape the future of technology and the start-ups in India. From significant investments in MSMEs to strengthening emerging technologies, the industrialists have spoken on various aspects that should be a part of the Union General Budget 2020-21 announcements. Here we have shortlisted top expectations from industry leaders.

Amit Gupta, CEO & Co founder at Rapyder

We are optimistic about the country's economic growth as he foresees better days compared to the current slow down. India, no doubt continues to remain the software development hub for the world. More hurdles in the path of MSME growth would be removed as I foresee a significant relaxation in the lending aspects for MSMEs to survive the current economic changes. Government could relax some of the compliances, which were mandatory earlier. It will also address the issue of delayed payments to MSMEs.

The ecosystem of MSME lending is set to see significant transformation. Thanks to better access to authentic data from various credible sources that provide a better understanding of the nature of the specific business, its growth potential and profits. Government will become even more citizen friendly, by providing a boost in consumer confidence with lowering personal income tax in the coming budget. This is inturn is expected to fuel demand of goods and services, leading to consumer-spending more for buying and consumption.

K G Prabhu Group CFO, Smartlink Holdings Ltd.

As India is gradually moving forward on the path of digitization, for Union Budget 2020, government should focus on giving a strong push to the initiatives that will drive the process of digital adoption across various sectors. We are expecting that the upcoming budget will have measures to encourage domestic manufacturing by introducing polices that will allow global companies to collaborate with Indian companies and manufacture in India.

Shailesh Shah, Co founder at Strata Consulting

India needs to garner over $10 trillion to get its urban infrastructure going in the correct direction. We need relevant, innovative and bold policy interventions to help make this happen. In the short term, we need to foster exports and domestic consumption while we start thinking beyond taxes the way we currently are to balance budgets. The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code is a step in the right direction but is in its infancy in comparison to the depth and width the nation needs to resolve thousands of cases and trillions of rupees. As a nation, we need to commit to monetary policy that helps align inflation and interest rates to massive growth.

Dr Vaibhav Kapoor, MBBS, MS & Co founder at Pristyn Care

As a startup trying to increase the accessibility and affordability of minimally invasive surgical technologies beyond the confines of corporate hospitals in Tier-1 cities to Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities, we could benefit a lot from partnerships with the government. Existing infrastructure of government hospitals, coupled with experienced surgeons and latest technology from the private sector can go to great lengths in ensuring that the vast majority of the population, that was previously bereft of the benefits of quality secondary care, can now be guided on the path to health. As the largest and sole provider of Laser General Surgery treatments in India through Ayushman Bharat, Pristyn Care has already taken steps in this regard to extend the benefit of Government schemes through a hassle free patient experience, but now the Government must also include provisions for such partnerships in the upcoming Union Budget.

Rachit Chawla, Founder & CEO, Finway

Better liquidity and sector-specific incentives to MSMEs should be the top priorities of the Finance Minister in the Union Budget 2020-21. 6.5 per cent GDP growth in the coming fiscal is not a formidable task once liquidity resurges and conditions of MSMEs get improved. There is a strong connection between the health of NBFCs and health of MSMEs. The financial goals of the latter depend a lot on the financial stability of the former, and their collective growth is an index to economic growth. IL&FS and DHFL crises bring drastic repercussions on India’s financial markets and MSMEs, the back-bone of Indian Economy are still bearing the brunt of reduced liquidity in the market.

A large number of MSMEs are struggling with financial challenges, and without special subsidies, their sustenance is difficult. It is very much shocking that out of 6.33 crore MSMEs in India, only 0.05 lakh are medium enterprises, and they usually deprive of Public Procurement Policy which mandates 25 per cent procurement from MSEs. They are also barred from availing delayed payment reliefs through facilitation councils. So, to revamp the economy, the Finance Minister should take adequate measures which may empower the NBFCs and consequently ensure better prospects for the MSMEs.

Vishal Parekh, Marketing Director, Kingston Technology & HyperX

We all agree that India has a strong goodwill in global markets. The country will have immense growth opportunities by siding with revolutionary new technologies that make the citizen’s life easy and their Governance easier. We hope to see a stronger push to re-invent the ‘Digital India’ campaign with better coverage area, with use of faster & efficient technology and with a planned schedule. Inclusion of all forms of businesses (service & goods) in such government’s initiatives and adequate training for its use, is a much preferred model. We wish to see the budget also focus on developing better infrastructure for datacenters and inviting domain experts to enforce data security measures. Lastly, we hope there is a direct tax relief to give the population a higher spending power which indirectly fuels the economy.

Deepak Mittal, CEO & Co-founder, TO THE NEW

We eagerly await the Budget 2020 expecting the government to focus on overall economic growth and by taking measures to continue positioning India as the IT epicenter of the world. We expect new policies promoting IT innovations by pushing relevant initiatives, making innovative and bold policy interventions to propel the process of digital adoption across varied sectors.

There’s no denying that Digital innovation is an important building block for India’s future growth. Thus, nurturing new-age tech, improving the quality of talent, and enabling start-ups must be on the agenda of this government. The government can strengthen R&D by providing tax incentives to technology start-ups in the Budget to enable India to draw level with the world.

It is important to note that the amount of data being created and stored across industries continues to grow at unprecedented rates. The government, therefore, must also intervene and play a role in the protection & management of this data.

Ashish Bhatia, Founder & MD, India Accelerator

The startups are hoping that the budget will announce initiatives that could pull more foreign capital and boost growth. The reduction in GST charges will encourage more foreign investors to invest in Indian start-ups. Currently, the tax rate of long-term capital gains is 28.5% as compared to the same for listed equities to be 10%. This creates a significant tax burden on founders and employees of startups, as well as domestic angel and institutional investors. Further, the relaxation of personal income tax rates will act as a booster shot. It will certainly help the startup companies and the Millenials to improve further and ease doing business.

Puneet and Yatin Jain Directors ODHNI

Over 6 crores MSMEs are sharing around 29 per cent to India’s GDP and they expect the government will introduce favourable policies and allocate substantial funds for the growth of MSMEs. Presently, out of 32,385 applications filed by MSMEs, 2,031 applications have been disposed of by the government under the delayed payment monitoring system called MSME Samadhaan. Apart from the lack of access to capital, infrastructure, skilled labour and power supply issues are some of the problems that plague MSMEs in India. Therefore, Indian entrepreneur hopes that the Union Budget 2020 will provide some long-term benefits to the MSME sector with better access to credit and lenient taxation policies.

Kushal Nahata, CEO & Co-founder, FarEye

The existing government has always been supportive of digitalization. Having said that, it will be welcoming news if the government plans to invest more in digital infrastructure to enhance connectivity in the rural parts of the country. Connectivity is extremely important to ensure logistics visibility and mitigate transportation risks. A greater focus on mandating the digitalization of certain key accounting, billing, and logistics processes are also needed to boost compliance and tackle corruption better. Another important reason as to why this budget should focus on and invest in digital technologies is ensuring greener logistics practices. Modern logistics management tools can empower businesses to drastically reduce fuel consumption and hence shrink their carbon footprint.

We are expecting that the government will initiate further investments in the National Centers for Artificial Intelligence and AI hubs that will help the startup ecosystem garner the benefits of these technologies. Besides, we also expect the government to expedite the development process of projects like the Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC).

Sameer Nigam, CEO &Co-founder, Stratbeans

2020 promises to be a huge year for digital transformation across industries. With the Union Budget set to be announced, we expect the government to introduce measures to provide the MSMEs sector a fair and equal opportunity to participate with large organizations. A level-playing field could be created by tax incentives.

The government should also consider lowering the rate of GST on eLearning and eLearning creation software to reduce the input cost of digital transformation projects, which are a key component of industry 4.0 initiatives. This will also make E-learning and video production software more affordable to a large number of consumers and create a higher growth rate for the gig economy in this sector.

Another key step that the government can take is to allot budgets for conducting Expos and trade shows for the IT players wherein we can showcase and pitch our tech services to Indian as well as global companies