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Mr. Arvind Bali, Videocon Telecom and Videocon WallCam

The budget has a clear push towards socio-economic growth of the country with aggressive focus on agriculture, education, rural economy, healthcare and infrastructure. The allocations aimed towards rural India will increase consumption which boost industries and help in nation building. Focus on digital solution and new age technologies is a big push in terms of creating the right environment for the next level of development in India. The increase in customs duty will further boost 'Make in India'.

Rakesh Kaul, Partner, Government and Public Sector, PwC India

The budget continues to reiterate the structural reforms journey with a renewed focus on social inclusion through health insurance for 10cr families, creation of infrastructure for education, health and wellness centres, free gas connections for 8cr women. Dealing with challenges of urbanisation continues through Smart City and Amrut. At the same time, it further strengthens the opportunity for India to gain from digital economy through initiatives around Artificial Intelligence, Cyberspace, Fintech, etc.

Sanjeev Agarwal, Chief Manufacturing Officer, LAVA International

“We welcome the announcement on custom duty increase in mobile phones from 15pc to 20 pc in the Union Budget 2018-19. This will provide a big boost to the Make-in-India campaign by the government, and will be instrumental in achieving our country’s vision of making India a global hub for mobile phone manufacturing. Local manufacturing will create more job opportunities, benefitting the youth and contributing towards the overall growth of the economy. I congratulate the government on this landmark decision.”

Mr. Padmanabha Krishnamurthy, CFO at Paladion Networks

"The 2018 budget has a strong focus on Agriculture, Healthcare, and Rural Development. I believe this will contribute to the holistic growth of India. The reduced corporate tax rates to the MSME sector is welcome, but I hope it is in the books to extend this benefit to all companies soon. The continued focus on digital growth by the Government including a special focus on Cyber Security with the launch of Centers of Excellence is a huge necessity for India and I am happy to see it in this Budget. Finance Minister has tried to keep the fiscal deficit within the target limits. Overall it is a prudent and growth-oriented budget. "

Mr Aakrit Vaish, Founder & CEO, Haptik

Allocation of significant fund and announcing efforts to enhance research in disruptive technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT) and Robotics implies that the importance of adoption of such technologies has finally been taken into consideration by the government. With NITI Aayog to establish a national programme for artificial intelligence, this will not only significantly aid job creation but will also assist the government to move towards its Digital India vision.

Mr. Abhesh Verma, COO nexGTv

"The Finance Minister has doubled the budget for the Digital India Scheme, emerging as a major move towards assisting the nation to progress further. The second development of investment of Rs 10,000 crore for rural Wi-Fi hotspots, giving 5 crore citizens access to broadband speed internet by the deployment of 5 lakh Wi-Fi hotspots should help bring more consumers online, increasing digital consumption of services like OTT, entertainment, banking, and e-commerce. We at nexGTv feel that all these steps are a definite plus for the significant growth of the digital businesses in the country."

Rashmi Deshpande, Associate Partner, Khaitan & Co

“The announcement on the crypto currency by the FM should not be misinterpreted to mean the cryptocurrency is going to be discouraged by the Government. The intention is more likely to regulate the circulation to avoid its usage for illegal transactions. In addition, the Government has recognized the viability of block chain technology that powers cryptocurrency. Efforts should be made to bring in regulations at the earliest to achieve this aim.”

Keith Martin, Head, Asia Pacific, Corporate Business, F-Secure

The Union Budget 2018-19 announced the mission on cyberspace which will be launched in support of the establishment of centres of excellence and stated that the allocation to the Digital India programme has been doubled to ₹3073 crore in 2018-19. This is huge step by the government with financial backing to make India a cyber-secure nation. Today, nearly all aspects of our lives are only, with everything from financial transactions to confidential personal data being accessible from every device. Such substantial focus on the sector by the Indian government further encourages us at F-Secure to support the country with our best-in-class solutions, helping our customers minimize their risk and guard against the cybercriminals.

Mr Rajiv Bhalla, Managing Director at Barco Electronic Systems

“The Union Budget 2018-19 is a balanced budget that I believe will help drive & sustain long-term growth for India. The increased focus on higher infrastructure spends, smart cities, digital India, and healthcare is a step in the right direction. With 99 smart cities being selected and an amount of over Rs. 2 lakh crore being allocated, it will give the nation a significant opportunity to upscale its Infrastructure as a growth driver. In addition, doubling the Digital India budget allocation this year is a step ahead towards becoming a digital-first economy which will assist in reshaping and empowering the country by leveraging technology.
The budget also brings momentum to India’s Healthcare by announcing Rs. 1,200 crore for 1.5 lakh wellness health centers, which is set to bring advancements in the Indian Healthcare sector.

Furthermore, we hope that impact due to the increased customs duties will offset the government’s dedicated push towards promoting manufacturing in India.

All in all, the budget is set to have a transformational impact and give a massive boost to the economy.”

Nikhil Rungta, MD, Intuit India

“We are delighted about the recognition from the government, MSME’s are indeed a major engine of growth and employment generation. This budget not only provides small and medium enterprises easier access to their working capital requirements but also highlights the importance of the role of online fintech lending companies. In the last year, while GST has been hailed as a much-needed overhaul of the indirect tax system, many small and medium sized businesses (SMBs) across sectors - services and product alike - are still adapting to the new tax regime . Of the 51 million SMBs present in the Indian market, around 20 per cent are somewhat digital-savvy. Since the government is highly supportive of making India digitally tax-compliant, this budget will help small business by making it easier for them to adopt financial technology solutions that would help them make their tax filings faster and much more convenient. “ – Nikhil Rungta, MD, Intuit India.”

Mr Archit Gupta, Founder & CEO ClearTax

Standard deduction has been reintroduced but at a cost, it takes away medical reimbursement and travel allowance. There were several demands to raise medical reimbursement from 15,000 and bring it up according to current prices (the amount has been same since more than a decade). However, now the clamour for raising this limit will die down. With this, for a salaried, the amount taxable under salary shall be reduced by Rs 5,800. While cess will go up by 1%. Senior citizens have much to rejoice and will face much lower burden of taxes, this is especially crucial in the falling interest rates from banks and deposits.

Mr. Shrenik Bhayani, GM, Kaspersky Lab (South Asia)

"The union budget of 2018, very evidently pictures a positive growth that the government has shown towards digitalization in India. Their push towards the research efforts in Artificial Intelligence is a smart step taken by Mr. Arun Jaitley.
The aim to setup 5 lakh hotspots is a great step, which also calls the need for being alert on the cybersecurity front. People need to be educated about antivirus solutions and be made aware about not falling for phishing attacks.

The blockchain can be an effective technology and I feel that exploring Block Chain Technology for payments is a brave step taken by the government. I am excited for the development of this remarkable and useful technology in our country, as it is in fact increasingly being implemented by a vast number of industries. At the same time, it can be an attractive target for cybercriminals. Some cyberthreats have been inherited from e-payments, such as changing the address of the destination wallet address during transactions and stealing an electronic wallet, among other things. Therefore, we should remain vigilant to stay secure.”

Mr. Vivek Agarwal, Co-founder, M-tech Informatics Ltd

We welcome the Budget 2018 by the Honorable Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. The Union Budget 2018 is a growth oriented budget with enormous push for health, agriculture, education and infrastructure, which we believe will usher in healthy economic growth in the years to come. Speaking specifically of mobile phone industry, we are glad that our demand of increasing customs duty on mobile phone CBU [completely built units] imports to 20 % from the existing 15 % has been met. This will prevent dumping of phones in the Indian market, boost domestic manufacturing and provide a level playing field to home grown brands. The announcement is in line with the objectives of the Make in India initiative.

Mr. Arvind Bali, Videocon Telecom and Videocon WallCam

The budget has a clear push towards socio-economic growth of the country with aggressive focus on agriculture, education, rural economy, healthcare and infrastructure. The allocations aimed towards rural India will increase consumption which boost industries and help in nation building. Focus on digital solution and new age technologies is a big push in terms of creating the right environment for the next level of development in India. The increase in customs duty will further boost 'Make in India'.

Vikas Agarwal, General Manager at OnePlus India

“Since the announcement of Make in India program 3 years back, over 85% of smartphones sold in country are now produced locally. So, this is opportune time to introduce next set of regulations to attract investment in the manufacturing sector and establish India as a global hub for electronics. At OnePlus, we are fully committed to the Indian market and welcome the proposed regulations. Currently, all OnePlus smartphones are produced locally and we are already exploring ways to further increase the share of local manufacturing to ensure there is minimal cost impact of any new regulations to the end customer.”

Thiru Vengadam, Regional VP India, Epicor Software Corporation

We welcome the governments proposals in the Union Budget 2018-19 that incentivise MSMEs. The budget proposes bringing down the corporate tax for firms that reported turnover up to Rs 250 crore , thereby reducing tax burden on MSMEs. Further the government has allocated funds for 2018-19 for credit support to MSMEs.
For MSMEs technology is an enabler for business growth and technology adoption is seen as a top priority. However, MSMEs are often unable to utilize the opportunities available through technology due to lack of working capital finance. The budget proposals of access to credit and tax breaks to MSMEs will help reduce capital constraints and encourage investment in IT solutions such as enterprise resource planning (ERP) to help them work smarter, operate more efficiently and be innovative.The Budget announcements will further encourage technology vendors such as Epicor to continue adding value to medium sized businesses through technology offerings that help them grow now and positions them for success in the future.

Mr. KK Mookhey, Founder & CEO, Network Intelligence

“The move to make cryptocurrencies illegal is a major announcement; it is likely to create a negative impact on the price of these currencies, especially Bitcoin. A better idea may have been to come out with some sort of a regulatory framework around cryptocurrencies. On the other hand, the point raised by the Finance Minister about exploring the usage of blockchain technology for payments is a very good initiative. It will support homegrown technologies who have already invested in the technology and will attract new investments in this technology. It is a positive sign to see that 5 lakh wifi-hotspots will be set up covering 5 crore rural citizens. This falls in place with the country’s Digital vision. We would have liked to see more substantial movement on setting up the CERT-Fin for the financial sector.”