During the Budget speech, Nirmala Sitharaman (Finance Minister of India) made interesting announcements related to the tech sector. The FM stated, “The government’s vision for the ‘Amrit Kaal’ includes a technology-driven and knowledge-based economy, with strong public finances and a robust financial sector.”
Key Highlights of Budget for Tech-Based Sector
Last year, the contribution from the IT sector was 7.4% of India’s total GDP, and by the next two years (2025), it is expected to grow to 10% of the total GDP.
Keeping this incremental graph in mind, the Govt of India has started to introduce new initiatives and plans to promote the tech sector. Most of these initiatives include promoting digital payments, introducing 5G labs, Digilocker, etc. The rest of the developments are listed below:
- Digilocker: The Govt is planning to expand the usage of Digilocker to store crucial documents like AADHAR and PAN for individuals, charitable organizations, and MSME organizations to help simplify their KYC (Know Your Customer) process.
- PAN Identification: As per this, the Finance Minister of India stated that PAN would be considered ‘the universal identifier’ for any type of digital payments that are made by the govt entities.
- Agri-Tech Startup: Nirmala Sitharaman further introduced an ‘agriculture-accelerator fund’ to promote agriculture among youngsters of India. She further stated that this fund will help the youth to set up agritech-based startups. Apart from that, ‘digital public infrastructure’ is also to be developed to promote the agritech sector.
- Labs: In her budget speech, Ms. Sitharaman stated that 100 labs are to be introduced in engineering institutions. This will be used to develop applications to utilize 5G services. These labs will have smart classrooms, healthcare applications, and precision farming.
- AI Centres: Apart from Labs, three COEs (Centres of Excellence) for artificial intelligence are also to be set up in top-notch educational institutions across India.
- National Digital Library: National Digital Library for adolescents as well as children, is to be introduced to make quality books available across India in different genres and languages to compensate for the loss of learning during Covid. Physical libraries are to be set up at ward and panchayat levels also.
- E-courts: ₹7000 Cr. has been allocated to launch the Phase-3 of ‘e-courts’ project.
- Customs Duty: As per GOI, Customs duty is to be eradicated on the import of parts for mobile manufacturing. Moreover, customs duty is to be cut to 2.5% on inputs of TV panels’ open cells, while customs duty has been increased from 7.5% to 15% in case of electric kitchen chimneys.
With technology-based investments in data reforms and AI centers, India aims to lead the world in the domain of technological advancements. This would not only make India’s economy stronger but would also enable India to expand in terms of its GDP and employability rate.