What IT industry expects from Budget 2021: Higher Innovation Quotient, push for infra building, and more, HR News, ETHRWorld

By Abhishek Sahu

Industry leaders say the Indian government’s Digital India programme has transformed the nation into a ‘connected knowledge’ economy. With the second-largest internet user base of 700 million, IT leaders say the forthcoming budget is an opportunity for Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to establish India as a global powerhouse of Digital Growth and realise the vision of a $5 trillion economy by 2025.

Extension of the PLI scheme to existing businesses

According to Anand Agarwal, Group CEO, STL, developed economies with greater than $5 trillion GDP spend 1.2 per cent of their GDP for digital infrastructure building. In the upcoming Union Budget 2021, he expects a roadmap for investments to the tune of 2 per cent of the GDP, as against 0.5 per cent earlier, for building the next-gen digital infrastructure.

He said, “Our government must allocate a dedicated and non-lapsable budget for network building and modernisation to improve our global positioning on network readiness index.”

Agarwal further said, “Now is the time to innovate and build indigenously and become Atmanirbhar. Extension of the PLI scheme to existing businesses will boost the overall digital landscape of the country.”

Similarly, Karthikeyan Natarajan, President and Chief Operating Officer, Cyient, thinks Budget 2021-22 will be critical as India battles the twin challenges of economic slowdown and the Covid-19 pandemic.

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“We hope the budget lays down a clear roadmap for a higher Innovation Quotient and sets a vision to carve India into an Innovative Economy by 2050. This would require India to grow from 0.5 per cent of R&D spend to the GDP to improve to 1.5 per cent by the end of this decade and reach 2.5-3 per cent by 2050,” Natarajan said.

He is hopeful of an increased Research and Innovation enabling more IP to come from India in the budget from the Finance Minister. He said companies are also eagerly awaiting a central Research & Innovation Fund to help build up intellectual property out of the country.

“This will not only help domestic technology companies but also attract global clients to set up their engineering centres out of India,” he asserted.

A strong push towards policies promoting IT innovation

For Deepak Mittal, Co-Founder and CEO, TO THE NEW, the Indian IT and IT-enabled Services (IT & ITeS) sector has witnessed a complete turnaround and an unprecedented boost in the wake of Covid-19.

Furthermore, he said, “The year 2021 promises to be a huge year for the sector fuelled by the growing need and adoption of digital technologies across the board. The sector has not only generated immense job opportunities but has also positioned India as one of the most preferred investment destinations globally.”

Given the current business scenario, Mittal expects a strong push towards policies promoting IT innovation by pushing business-critical and bold policy interventions to propel digital adoption across multiple industries.

He said, “Digital-First and Data-Centric should be the key focus areas for the Indian government as we push for Digital innovation as an important building block for India’s future growth.”

Similarly, Sameer Nigam, Co-Founder and CEO, Stratbeans, said since the IT industry has been the backbone for Digital India and Startup India, providing the right incentives to the industry will be the key for the country’s economic revival.

“One such incentive is to simplify the tax-related complexities to encourage global trade of software products from and to India. Some effort in this direction will help increase revenue for the exchequer that can flow back into the country for socio-economic welfare,” he said.

He further said another important area for improvement is to introduce measures that encourage corporates as well as individuals to pay taxes and contribute to the nation’s progress.

“This will also create a collaborative, nationwide effort towards building a great nation,” added Nigam.

Sunil Sharma, Managing Director – Sales, India & SAARC, Sophos, bets that the budget should take into account the necessary provisions for companies to secure their operations from cybercriminals and ensure complete compliance.

“This can be done through incentives and tax subsidies. As per our recent survey, with 100 per cent Indian businesses being concerned about their current level of cloud security, there is a need for initiatives to develop the cybersecurity skill sets that also take care of the security of cloud environments which is the backbone of accelerated digital transformation that India is witnessing due to the pandemic,” he said.