Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE: Who said what about Nirmala Sitharamans announcements - Top quotes from India Inc.

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday presented the Union Budget 2021-22. FM Nirmala Sitharaman has made a number of announcements pertaining to textiles, manufacturing, railways, startups, health, infrastructure, income tax and other domains. Welcoming the announcements made by FM Sitharaman, PM Narendra Modi said that Union Budget 2021-22 contains the vision of self-reliance as well as inclusiveness. Modi added that this was one of the rare Budget speeches that elicited so many positive reactions from experts.

Here are all the LIVE updates on top quotes, reactions of India Inc. about their take on Budget 2021:-

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE UPDATES: Chandru Kalro, Managing Director of TTK Prestige

"There were great expectations around this budget and I am pleased to say that it delivered. This was a positive investment oriented budget demonstrating fiscal responsibility. Investment in infrastructure and new labour codes are particularly noteworthy as it will result in more jobs. The affordable housing push will definitely see an increase in the consumption of kitchen appliances. We appreciate the measures announced by the Finance Minister to improve ease of doing business, re-invigorating improving human capital and focusing on innovation.  It is commendable to see an increase in revenue without higher taxes.’’

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE UPDATES: Sanjiv Navangul, MD & CEO, Bharat Serums and Vaccines Ltd, (BSV) 

“The union budget has given a substantial increase to bolster the healthcare sector in India. INR 35000 cr for COVID-19 vaccine and the commitment to the pneumococcal vaccine to be rolled out nationwide to avert child deaths is a massive boost.  A well spent allocation of INR 64,000 cr under the new Atmanirbhar Swasthya Bharat Yojana scheme will show significant results thus labelling #healthyindia as an encouraging effort. And, the infrastructural push will certainly create many more skilled jobs revitalizing the overall ecosystem”

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE UPDATES: Dr. Ajay Data, Founder and CEO, VideoMeet

 The announcement by the Honorable Finance Minister regarding the startups was much required at the moment and will help the fledgling startups with meager resources to continue with their business operations without worrying about the compliance with complex taxes. The announcement comes soon after Prime Minister announced setting up of Rs 10,000 crore fund for seed funding of startups. These moves by the government make the intent of government clear that it wants to promote entrepreneurship and help the enthusiastic young entrepreneurs in the country.The setting up of separate administration structure to promote ease of doing business is a laudable move by the FM. Also, as predicted startups were given importance under this budget and the industry is poised to be greatly benefited with the Tax holiday extended by another year till 31 March, 2022.

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE UPDATES: Dr. Harish Pillai- CEO, Aster India, Aster DM Healthcare

"The increased investment towards Health Infrastructure and focus on a holistic approach to health is seen as a testimony of the commitment to building stronger health systems. The launch of the Atmanirbhar Swasthya Bharat Yojana with an outlay of Rs. 64,180 crores will boost the healthcare ecosystem. The investment will aid in developing capacities of healthcare systems, develop institutions for detection and cure of new and emerging diseases. This in addition to the National Health Mission, will support rural and urban health care centres. The all-inclusive approach through the launch of Mission Poshan 2.0 to improve nutritional outcomes and continued focus on cleanliness through Swachh Bharat Mission & potable drinking water through Urban Jal Jeevan Mission will subsequently bolster public health. The commitment to Rs. 35, 000 crores for the COVID-19 vaccination program and the promise to further provide funds if required, will accelerate the vaccination across the population. Strengthening of the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) & setting up of a National Institution for One Health, Bio-Safety Level III laboratories and regional National Institutes for Virology will provide a thrust for the improvement of the healthcare sector in India, which is commendable. Overall, it is a landmark budget to help fill-up the growing needs of improved healthcare in the country."

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE: Jignesh Shah, CFO, Yash Pakka Ltd.

"We welcome the Union Budget tabled by the Finance Minister today, especially its Swachh Bharat 2.0 initiative. Alongside other developments, the reduction of single-use plastic is a decisive step towards curbing plastic pollution in India. We would be keen to see the fine print and understand more about the initiative. A complete ban on single-use plastic is expected along with relevant incentives to adopt compostable alternatives for businesses. It will pave the way for a cost-effective transition to materialize this vision. At the same time, doing so will not weigh on the pockets of businesses or the customers, thereby ensuring a seamless changeover. We applaud the government for the much-needed initiative and hope that it will do as is the need of the hour."

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE: Nikhil Chopra, CEO & Whole Time Director, J.B. Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals

“A well-rounded holistic budget that embraces all sectors through various measures to boost economic activity. Against the backdrop of the pandemic and an economy facing an unprecedented contraction, the Hon'ble Finance Minister has met the challenge face-on with a budget that has a long term vision laid out in a strategic road map.  The emphasis on an ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’ with an increase in capital expenditure will boost investment in infrastructure and fuel economic growth.  

The significant increase in allocation for health and well-being augurs well for the nation and can be a driving force and strong foundation for accelerating essential drugs and health-related consciousness to the last mile of Indians. The allocation of funds for Covid-19 vaccination will fast track the inoculation drive and it is worth lauding the Government’s commitment to provide further funds if deemed necessary.  

The budget addresses the gaps in rural and urban healthcare that the pandemic exposed with the ‘PM Atmanirbhar Swasth Bharat Yojana’ in addition to the National Health Mission. Along with the emphasis on nutrition, clean water, and clean environment, this will bolster health infrastructure and reach across India. The pharma industry is ready to contribute towards fortifying the health of the nation that is the cornerstone of development. JBCPL stands by the nation!

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE: Anand Kumar, Founder of Pier Counsel

"We welcome the Union Budget tabled in the parliament by the Finance Minister. Realizing the importance of financial impetus, the government has increased its capital expenditure this year by about 34.5% against FY2021, wherein Rs. 5.54 lakh crores have been set aside by the same. Out of this, Rs. 2 lakh crores will be extended to states and autonomous bodies while another Rs. 44,000 crores have been earmarked for the Department of Economic Affairs. On the startup front, the government has made a good move by incentivizing one-person companies, something that will unlock sizable innovation within the segment. The tax holiday for startups has further been increased for one more year - which will be lucrative for both startups and their investors. Entrepreneurs will have more freedom to innovate. We are pleased to see the proposed budget and await the fine print of the same."

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE: Ashwin Bhambri, CEO of Phoneparloan, 

"The government has made the much-needed changes for the startup industry including the extension of tax holiday for another year and reducing margin money requirement from 25% to 15%. Such measures will provide Indian startups greater financial headroom to scale, grow, and execute their plans. The government further plans to infuse Rs. 20,000 crores into Public Sector Banks, which will ease the liquidity scenario to a great extent. Another key takeaway of the budget is the extension of the timeline of tax relief for affordable housing. Overall, such developments will extend a considerable relief to the taxpayers while also driving the demand of the realty segment. We are more optimistic about the future post the budget announcement."

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE: Rehan A Khan (Managing Director- India Region, MSD) 

“We welcome the much-deserved attention on India's healthcare sector in the Union Budget 2021, and are glad to hear the increase in the total budget outlay for healthcare in this year.  We are encouraged with Government’s renewed focus on preventive and curative health as well as the overall wellness and well-being of our citizens. The introduction of the Aatmanirbhar Health Yojana in addition to the National Health Mission,  along with other announcements in the healthcare and pharma sector- such as setting up health and wellness centres, integrated public health labs in each district, - are aimed at widening access to health and wellness while driving focus on preventive health. These patient centered initiatives will play a pivotal role in the success of the National Health Mission. 
 
Healthcare in India is at the cusp of transformation.  Advancements in biotechnology, smart medicines, virtual & augmented reality, AI & IoT in healthcare are likely to gain momentum. This calls for patient-focused healthcare ecosystem wherein community health, mental health and other such critical areas are properly represented.  The Government’s focus on self-reliance, especially with the attention on scaling production capabilities of vaccines and other medicines,  demonstrates its commitment to build a healthy India.  While 2020 has accelerated the foundation for a digital transformation and innovation of the healthcare system, 2021 will support in further widening access and increasing digital inclusion in the remotest corners of the country.
 
Having said this, there is a need to further bolster the research and innovation ecosystem in the country in order to ensure that Indian patients receive new treatments and cures. An increased collaboration between stakeholders from industry, academia, governments, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), regulators and patients’ organizations is essential to promote a robust research framework which recognizes and rewards innovation.” 

Kaushlendra Singh Sengar Founder & CEO at INVEST19

"The outset of 1st 2021 decade budget with Indian made tablet has cleared that how much Indian administration is advancing towards ‘Atma Nirbhar Bharat’ and being tech-savvy. No one could deny the fact that the way the administration has opened doors for inviting investment from foreign and institutional investors. The major push to invite investment by eradicating dividend tax on Invites will push institutions to deploy more investments. No introduction of any tax and cess on personal income, start-ups and other areas has cleared that the administration’s focus is more on growth despite the heavy expenditure incurred on Covid-19 in this financial year. Increase in FDI limit in insurance companies, the surge in NRI tax audit limit from 1 crore to 5 crores has cleared that Indian administration is welcoming foreign investment. In order to spur privatization, earlier disinvestment plans of PSUs will be cleared and two more PSUs along with general insurance will be disinvested this year. However, the increase in oil prices, Fiscal deficit target of FY22 to 6.8% and gross borrowings of 12 lakh crores for FY22 will spur inflation that may offset some incentives provided in the budget."

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE: Sudeshna Datta, Co-Founder & Executive Vice President, Absolutdata

 "We appreciate the government’s focus on innovation in its Budget 2021. The Government of India has allocated Rs. 50,000 crore for the next five years aimed at innovation and R&D in the country. On this front, it is expected from the government to set up innovation labs that specifically focus on advanced technologies such as AI/ML and Data analytics alongside others.
This year, Digital India has received special attention with a proposed fintech hub at GIFT city, digital payments enhancements, and the use of AI and ML in governance. The government also intends to make tax appellate faceless with tech-enablements for identifying tax evaders. These developments provide a strong foundation for a forward-looking data-driven economy. They will surely boost the confidence of technology-driven industry players and strengthen the government's Make in India for The World and Atmanirbhar Bharat vision, besides making the Indian tech industry more effective and efficient, thereby establishing new global benchmarks."

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE: Lalit Arora, Co-founder and CEO, VingaJoy (a unit of Ubon)

The Union Budget 2021 has given a hope to the consumer durables industry as it provided incentives for local  manufacturers, reduction in taxes on eco-friendly and energy-efficient products along with waiver of customs duty on imported inputs to make components. It is likely to attract global players in the Indian manufacturing sector as the Government is planning to offer plug-and-play infrastructure to the companies willing to come to India. Domestic electronic manufacturing has grown rapidly. We are now exporting items like mobiles and chargers. For greater domestic value addition, we are withdrawing a few exemptions on parts of chargers and sub- parts of mobiles. Further, some parts of mobiles will move from ‘nil’ rate to a moderate 2.5%.

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE: Mandeep Arora, Managing Director, UBON

At UBON, we believe that the Budget 2021 is an encouraging one. Proposing the scheme to encourage domestic electronic manufacturing mobile phones, semiconductor packaging and electronic equipment is a welcoming move and we look forward to a complete policy to leverage it in expanding manufacturing in our new factories. Furthermore, painting a futuristic picture in this year’s budget, madam finance minister acknowledged the role of advanced technologies like IoT, AI, and analytics in shaping the world. We are forever committed to advancing our ‘AI x IoT’ ecosystem in India and will continue to invest in cutting-edge technologies to offer the best services to our customers in India. 
Another aspect which I want to applaud in this year’s budget is withdrawing exemptions on parts of chargers and sub-parts of mobiles. From a consumer electronics industry perspective, the decision is a welcome move and boosts the industry sentiments. This will further give a boost to Indian Manufacturing industry and propelling more investors in the sector.

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE: Budget Quote: Mr. M. Natarajan, SVP- Head of Finance & Accounts, JK Technosoft

“The Union Budget 2021-22 is applaudable at various levels. While as expected by many there were no exemptions in the tax slab, but providing exemption to the elderly for filing the return is a great action to reduce the compliance burden for the senior citizens. We also appreciate the Finance Minister’s decision to constitute a Dispute Resolution Committee to ensure efficiency, transparency and accountability under which anyone with a taxable income up to `50 lakh and disputed income up to `10 lakh shall be eligible to approach the committee for resolving disputes. We commend the Government’s decision to smoothen the GST structure to remove anomalies such as the inverted duty structure. Further, digitization of GST by deploying deep analytics and Artificial Intelligence to identify tax evaders and fake billers and launch of special drives against them is a praiseworthy action. We also appreciate the Government’s focus on new-age technology like Data Analytics, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning under which it will launch MCA21 Version 3.0 involving additional modules for e-Scrutiny, e-Adjudication, e-Consultation and Compliance Management.”

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE: Deepak Chandnani, Managing Director, Worldline South Asia & Middle East:

“The FM’s announcement in the Union Budget allocating INR 1500 crores to promote digital modes of payments is very welcome and will add muscle to the drive to enhance the adoption of digital payments across the country to tier 3 and below towns, a much needed step for universal acceptance of digital payments”

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE: Ambrish Parajiya, Director, GAP Associates and Gopal Goswami, Director, GAP Associates, JK Projects Pvt. Ltd.

"Budget 2021:Checks all boxes for Real Estate & Infrastructure

This Budget seems to have balanced out infrastructure and healthcare well. Allocation of Healthcare at the highest, almost 137 per cent higher than the last year will also ensure mass vaccination in India. This will de-burden India at large. 
A lauded initiative by the FM Nirmala Sitharaman is capital expenditure of Rs 5.54 lakh crore towards infrastructure development for FY 2021-22. Further, the government aims to provide states and autonomous bodies with more than Rs 2 lakh crore. The FM announced a massive boost in Infrastructure spending in various sectors in India in water supply, schools, roads, highways, railways, ports and power. 
As a stimulus to the Real Estate Industry, government has given Rs 1.5 lakh crore for financing affordable housing projects. The affordable housing has become the backbone of the Real estate companies these days. 
Looking at the current condition of the industry, investment flow was sluggish and most of which was local. Amid such a situation, government expenditure will enable the industry to have finances to continue with its plans for diversification, R&D or restarting stalled projects.  
In India, the real estate industry is among the key pillars of the Indian economy. Estimated to be worth more than Rs 13.5 lakh crore at present, it projects the sector to reach a market size of Rs 75 Lakh Crore by 2030 and it will contribute around 13% to the national GDP. 
As a surprise for affordable housing segment, the deadline for the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana’s Credit Linked Subsidy Scheme (CLSS) for the Middle-Income Group (MIG) is extended from March 2021 to March 2022. Economically Weaker Section (EWS) and the Lower Income Group (LIG) can avail the benefit of CLSS subsidy until March 31, 2022. 
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman noted 11,000 km of the national highway corridor is expected to complete by March 2022 and that projects for 8500 km will be awarded. FM also announced the government's intentions to set up more economic corridors in the future, hinting at 3500 km of national highway works at an investment of Rs 1.03 lakh crores.
FM announced a huge sum for Railways, an outlay of Rs 1,10,055 crore will be provided for the Ministry of Railways of which Rs 1,07,100 crore was provided for capital expenditure. Further, she proposed Rs 1,07,000 crore for capital expenditure of Indian Railways and announced the setting up of dedicated freight corridors across the country. Western and Eastern dedicated freight corridors will be commissioned by June 2022, observed the Budget.
FM also allocated Rs 18,000 crore towards public buses and revealed that a PPP model will maintain over 20,000 buses. This will create employment and would give a fillip to the automobile sector. 
The FM announced a scheme for promoting flagging of merchant ships in India to be launched, by providing subsidy support to Indian shipping companies in global tenders floated by Ministries and CPSEs Rs 1,624 crores over 5 years for this. Ship recycling capacities of around 4.5 million light displacement tonnage to be doubled by 2024, expected to generate around 1.5 lakh jobs for the youth.
Meanwhile, Jal Jeevan Mission has got Rs 2.86 lakh crore to provide tapped water in urban areas. 100 new cities will be brought under city gas distribution network for piped gas it will be a huge boost to infrastructure. Over a hundred new schools, micro irrigation and five new fishing harbours, National PSU pipeline project, seven new Mega Textile Parks will attract investment worth Rs 5 lakh crore in the next three years. This budget is really huge and employment centric in true sense. FM Sitharaman has emerged as a saviour at the right time for the people looking for job and businesses looking for a market. This budget is ‘Amrut’ for real estate and infrastructure industry. This budget to India is like the USA’s infra-boost after the great depression in the third decade of the last century. Sitharaman’s best budget so far. Thank you Finance Minister!"

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE: Nadia Sood, CEO & Co-founder CreditEnable

The reduction of paid up capital requirements for businesses to incorporate, the ability of non resident Indians to incorporate all are good steps forward for India to improve its start up scene. What will be important however is how the deployment of the additional Rs 15,700 cr is deployed to ensure existing MSMEs which make up the largest contribution of India’s GDP are supported to recover from COVID. Particularly in terms of financial infrastructure: the rapid implementation of OCEN will be critical to India’s recovery which will also depend on MSMEs are able to secure debt quickly and at reasonable rates.

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE UPDATES: Ashish Bhutani, MD, Bhutani Group

It is to be seen what kind of easing government will carry out in InvITs/REITs. Hopefully, there will be changes in the mandated time gap between two institutional placements, and changes will be made with respect to pricing of units by REITs and InvITs for preferential issues. In view of the pandemic, we expect that there will be relaxations for raising of equity capital. Having said that we hope that the relaxations will be good for the market, and people will see more REITs moving in.

 

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE: Dr. Chandrima Sikdar, Associate Dean, School of Business Management, SVKM's NMIMS Deemed-to-be University

The announcements for the education sector in the Union Budget 2021 spell out a road map towards inclusive education in India. From setting up of a central university in Leh to setting up 750 Ekalavya Model residential schools in tribal areas to 100 new Sainik schools to revamping of a post-matric scheme to a proposal to amend the Apprenticeship Act, the announcements clearly indicate a concerted effort towards making education accessible, available and affordable to all and to the remotest and farthest of the places in the country."
 
Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE: DR. Suresh Mony, Professor Emeritus, SVKM'S  NMIMS Bengaluru Campus

Three proposals of the Finance Minister in the budget for 2020-21 for the Education sector are appealing, viz: (a) Strengthening of 15000+ schools (b) Setting up of the Higher Education Commission (c) Fund allocation for the National Research Fund(NRF).

It is the quality of primary education that is really hurting human and economic development. While India has over 15 lakh schools which are reportedly three times that of China’s, 40% of them are unviable with less than 50 students and 2 to 3 teachers. Considering that we have about 935 districts in the country, the 15000 schools to be strengthened constitute an average of 16 schools per district which is significant. These schools can serve as model schools and have a spin-off effect on education in the rest of the district and trigger a revolutionary improvement in primary education.

Establishing a Higher Education Commission is in keeping with the recommendation in the New Education Policy(NEP) and would greatly uniformity and consistency help elevate the quality of higher education in India and enable many universities to enter the top 500 rankings. I am glad that the government has quickly responded to the NEP-2020 recommendation and earmarked funds for the NRF. However, budget allocation is the easier part. What is more important is for a mechanism to integrate academia, industry, government, and the social sector, on a common platform that is a repository of problems, issues that need to be researched. I hope the government, maybe through Niti Aayog quickly acts on this. Then there will plenty to chew for researchers in terms of ideas and research will become a movement where all the stakeholders are equally involved."

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE: Rustom Kerawalla, Founder Chairman, VIBGYOR Group of Schools

We, like the rest of India, welcome Budget 2021 with open arms. This budget is highly significant, as it comes at a time when Indian industry is beginning to rebound from the unprecedented contraction caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, and our goal needs to be to help the country get back on track as the world’s fastest-growing economy, by boosting the spending on education, skilling, and apprenticeship. 
The budget has correctly highlighted the imperative for greater emphasis on innovation, research, and development, which are crucial to helping India reach the aspirational goal of becoming a $5 trillion economy. Focusing on the amplification of emerging technologies can help create a world-class education ecosystem in the country and equip future Indian professionals with the required skills and competencies to navigate the data-driven world of tomorrow. We look forward to working with the Indian government on realizing these and other goals, such as inclusivity and accessibility in education, and appropriately harnessing the potential and skills of our youth, which will solidify our country's position as a top economy and leader of the future.

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE: Mayank Agarwal, Co-founder, Humsafar 

"In today’s Union Budget, Government has planned major investments in infrastructure development which will boost Diesel Door Delivery initiative" 

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE: Sourabh Deorah, CEO & Co-founder at Advantage Club

"Lack of announcements in the direct tax front in Union Budget 2021-22 will be both a relief and disappointment for the salaried class. Relief for those who fall in the higher tax bracket and disappointment for those who were expecting changes in standard deductions and tax deductions centred around the costs incurred for a shift to remote working. On the other hand, the various announcements made for the startup sector will provide a much-needed impetus to the startup ecosystem in the country that took quite a significant blow due to the pandemic. Capital gains exemptions will incentivise funding for startups and propel their growth."

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE: Rupa Barua, Managing Partner & Director, The Brand Quest

"The focus of the Union Budget 2021-22 was prepared under the circumstances never seen before. Budget 2021, it's a mixed bag for us. While the budget vision takes a lead on self-reliance and features every section of society. The extension of tax holidays for start-ups and capital gains will also spark greater capital activity in the investment landscape and serve as an enabler of robust early-stage venture funding for start-ups. In a big boost for startups and incentivize the inclusion of one-person companies, such companies will be allowed to grow without any restriction on paid-up capital or turnover and to convert into any other type of company at any time. Apart from this, the government has given a huge aid to home buyers. Presumably, the real estate sector will accelerate. Overall, this is an ambitious, growth-oriented budget and the government has tried to ensure that the economy receives the impetus it needs to go back to a respectable GDP growth level."

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE: Dr Ambrish Kumar,Founder of Zipaworld and Group CEO, AAA 2 Innovate Private Ltd

"The stakeholders and players of the logistics sector would resonate with the fact that Budget 2021 has not completely met the expectations of the sector. It can be said that some of the initiatives like  the  public-private partnership projects of ports, monetization of Dedicated Freight Corridor assets by railways, National Monetization Pipeline for financing infrastructure construction, rationalising and reducing customs duty on certain imports scrap and products and increasing for exports of agricultural products are in lines with encouraging manufacturing, distribution or Make in India initiative.

However, some expectations like an investment in technology, speeding up of National Logistics Policy measures, promoting Start-ups and MSMEs, working capital influx for the logistics sector, etc that form the major concern of the logistics sector are not focussed upon."

 

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE:  Vaibhav Garg, Sports & Clinical Nutritionist, Founder- Purecise

“Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a new centrally sponsored scheme for the healthcare sector in Budget 2021. The Pradhan Mantri Atma Nirbhar Swasthya Bharat Yojana has been launched with a total outlay of Rs. 64,180 crore over a period of next six years aimed to cure new and emerging diseases. In addition, for the year 2021-2022, Rs. 35000 crores will be provided for the contribution of COVID-19 vaccinations. Since, this budget focuses on the health care system which is one of our common goals towards the country but along with this, we expected an initiative to be taken by the government towards improving palliative care through science based dietary and nutrition protocols in the post COVID-19 scenario. We appreciate the Government’s move to outlay Rs 2,23,846 cr.  dedicated towards health and well-being for the FY22. The budget very aptly focuses towards strengthening preventive care, curative and well-being of the population.”

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE: Sangeet Kumar, CEO & Co-Founder, Addverb Technologies

Budget 2021 focuses on enhancing productivity by incentivising the use of technology to make India 'Atmanirbhar' and future-ready. As the future of manufacturing is driven with robotics and other automation technologies, we appreciate the announcement of PLI schemes to create manufacturing global champions under AtmaNirbhar Bharat for 13 sectors related to electronic manufacturing. The Government also announced to extensively use data analytics, artificial intelligence & machine learning for the roll out of MCA21 portal version 3.0. This version 3.0 will have additional modules for e-scrutiny, e-Adjudication, e-Consultation and compliance Management. Also, as upskilling programs are required to make the workforce ready to work with robots and other automation, the budget played a lot of attention to machine learning driven programmes and setting up of data centre parks to promote R&D. We highly appreciate the proposal of extending the tax holiday for start-ups for one more year and Tax relief for startup employees on deferment of tax payment on ESOPs by 5 years.

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE: Tanuja Pandey - Founder and CEO, Uniqstays

As expected the budget has been a disappointment for the tourism and hospitality sector which is already reeling under post covid shock . Even in a pandemic no relief was offered to this sector. India’s travel and tourism sector was left behind totally in today's union budget speech by our honourable FM! While if you notice, other countries treat tourism as a pillar of growth and have supported the affected business with a fixed monthly payout - For Eg:- France which is dependent on tourism - the tour and travel agents get a security blanket as they pay taxes. We expected the same from Indian government after the pandemic-induced economic shock. It was much needed to give tourism the importance it deserves. This sector has historically contributed more than 10% to the global GDP and jobs across the globe, and without any support from the government in the form of a stimulus package, our industry is trying to find its feet and take initial steps towards recovery post the crisis. The whole industry kept rooting for income tax reductions which would have boosted the cash flow of businesses. But sadly, the Covid-19 budget has left no room for hope.

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE:  Rajat Kapoor, Master Franchisee India, Seraphine

The government announced more SOPs for start-ups, as capital gains exemption by one more year to incentive funding. After the Union Budget 2021 many medium industries are defined as small industries. As per the new definition of small industry would be those who will not be exceeding 2 lakhs to 2 crores and turnover 20 crore it would be beneficial. With a focus on Aatma Nirbhar Bharat, the announcement of the establishment of 7 textile parks by Modi government in Budget 2021 should be welcomed with open arms. It's a big boost for the local textile industry. And, this will help India become a world leader in the textile sector. In the textile industry also more exports and FDI are announced, which is again going to be a good thing. We are looking for a good financial year ahead.

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE: Shreya Sabharwal, Founder and CEO, Square Fork

The Union Budget 2021-22 had the potential of being a game-changer for the digital marketing and media services sector. The pandemic has accelerated the adoption of digital solutions as a viable option to the conventional promotional ecosystem. Coming from a media and digital marketing solutions firm, the year 2020 was nothing less than a roller coaster ride.As a startup, our expectations from the Government were basics, just to lower the GST rates for service-based startups as 18% is on a slightly higher note, subsidize patent applications and legalize costs around that. Today, the FM announced more sops for startups, as it extended capital gains exemption by one more year to incentivize funding. However, what makes us happy as a women led startup is that minimum wages will apply to all categories of workers. Women will be allowed to work in all categories and also in night shifts with adequate protection. Government to reduce compliances of one person companies, a big boost for the startup ecosystem.

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE UPDATES: Samir Sathe, Executive Vice President, Wadhwani Advantage at Wadhwani Foundation

“ The current budget has a thrust on globalising supply chains in manufacturing and increased investment in hard infrastructure, which together is a welcome step for SMEs, albeit indirectly and with a lag, since the SMEs will need to experience on the benefits of such investments only in the latter part of 2021 or 2022. I am hopeful and happy about the changes on the healthcare, which is an important area for India, for the Foundation and for the Advantage program. The key is in its implementation.

Also. the act of increasing the threshold limits of the small company definitions is symbolic not fundamentally disruptive. While this will make more companies beneficiaries of the sops and concessions that the government has with a view to protect them, this does not change fundamental competitiveness of the small companies unless they build management capabilities to address and make the best use of the concessions or protection they will enjoy. It is like offering more playground without skilling the players how to win. I was hopeful of deeper, capability building budgetary changes for them.”

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE UPDATES: Sanjay Borkar, CEO and co-founder, FarmERP

"The Finance Minister has proposed to increase the agricultural credit to INR 16.5 lakh crores which was the highlight centring the Agricultural Budget. This credit can be used by smallholder farmers for CapEx, may it be their vehicles or cold storage and other facilities that they require and also as working capital during the crop cycle.  

One of India’s major concerning factors when it comes to agriculture is the infrastructure. The Agriculture Infrastructure and Development Cess (AIDC) proposed in this year’s budget can bring in good revenue to help farmers overcome these shortcomings by allowing them to store their produce in cold storages, stores or typical warehouses and get better value for their produce. This will play a vital role in strengthening the agricultural supply chain which can ultimately benefit the farmers and the stakeholders. 

The ‘Digital India’ movement initiated by the Government can help the farmers greatly. Though this movement is not directly focused on farmers, focusing on digital projects will promote the use of technology. This can be revolutionary for the rural sector including farmers as it can aid to improve the standard of living, manage finances, help provide better services and products to the end consumers."
 
Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE UPDATES: Sanjay Jain, Director, Elan Professionals Pvt. Ltd

"We are delighted that the government has recognised and considered strengthening the healthcare system for betterment of individuals, healthcare workers and hospitals along with the required infrastructure. It is an opportunity for a brand like ours to step forward and support the government's initiative by fully utilizing our portable vaccine carrier which will not only ease the transportation but will also lower the wastage of COVID-19 vaccine. Along with this, I think it is important to consider our industry under the PLI scheme to boost Atma Nirbhar Bharat packages. The manufacturing of commercial refrigerators is important and it will help in improving the agricultural industry as it would help avoid the wastage of vegetables and fruits due to lack of improper cold chain facilities. Also, almost 50% of cold chains are still import dependent. Hence, I look forward to the Government considering this.”

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE UPDATES: Rohit Sarin, Co-Founder of Client Associates

"It’s a growth focussed budget which is the need of the hour. The Government has done well to bite the bullet of expansionary fiscal policy with 6.8% fiscal deficit in FY22 after 9.5% deficit in FY21. This would bring in much needed investment in healthcare, manufacturing and infrastructure which shall show up in higher growth of the GDP in the years to come. This has been balanced with staying away from populist schemes and tinkering with direct tax structure as distractions. Overall a growth oriented and focused budget."

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE UPDATES: Harvinder Singh Sikka, MD,, Sikka Group

Long pending demand of the real estate sector has not been met. We have been asking for industry status for the whole sector and single window clearance for smooth functioning, the government did not comment on these requirements. Overall, the budget announcements made by Hon'ble FM seems to be a mixed bag from the real estate perspective. While the proposed easing of InvITs/REITs and the extension of tax holiday for affordable housing one more year are some of the positives for the sector.

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE UPDATES: Vinay Jain, Founder and CEO, Grafdoer

The Union Budget FY 21-22 has brought a ray of hope for the general public as the government has extended eligibility of tax SOP on home loan, which is beneficial for the sanitary-ware industry, and will also provide tax exemption for affordable rental housing projects. Moreover, the new custom duty structure that has been introduced on the steel products is somewhat a relief as it has reduced duties on copper from 5% to 2.5%, it has also cut duty on copper scrap from 5% to 2.5%, and exempted duty on steel scrap for a specified period. The industry has seen a hike in the products comprising of metal constituents but this will now, somehow help the manufacturers to see stability in the pricing of the products and is a matter of relief for the people

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE UPDATES: Ashwani Rawat & Amarsh Chaturvedi, Co-Founder & Director, Transerve.

“The Union Budget 2021 can be rightly considered as path breaking as it was the ground-level of the country and not just sector specific. The budget laid much-needed importance to the country's healthcare system considering the recent and ongoing Covid pandemic by allocating Rs 64,180 crore for Atmanirbhar Swasthya Yojana, thus strengthening healthcare in India. We also appreciate an outlay of Rs 1.41 lakh for Urban Swachh Bharat 2.0 Mission, Rs 2.87 lakh crore for Jal Jeevan Mission Urban, Rs 1.41 lakh crore for Urban Clean India Mission and announcement of 5 new Smart Cities under PPP mode in collaboration with states, to reinforce the Urban India. Technology being the core suite to build on a successful business ecosystem, we welcome allocation of Rs 8,000 crore for National Mission on Quantum Computing & technology and building data centre parks. The honourable Finance Minister has left no stones unturned to give a boost to new age technology like AI, ML and Data Analytics across sectors with the launch of MCA Version 3.0 which shall target simplification of E-Scrutiny, E-Adjudication and Compliance management.”

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE UPDATES: Dhiraj Jain, Director, Mahagun Group

“The Union Budget presented today by Finance Minister Niramala Sitharaman paves the way for faster recovery in the real estate sector which was badly impacted by the corona pandemic. The measures announced today will provide the right impetus and help the industry rebound across the country. Although the real estate sector has shown tremendous resilience in the last 10 months or so, such a step by the government was much required by the government. The real estate industry is standing at a crucial juncture at the moment and the extension of deduction of the home loan interest will definitely do wonders for the sector. The luxury housing sector does not have much to rejoice though

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE UPDATES: Prof (Dr.) Sanjiv Marwah, Director, JK Business School

“The budget presented by the honorable Finance Minister tried to address many facets of the educational sector. The overall allocation of Rs. 93224 Cr for the education sector is a welcoming announcement. The budget emphasized the recent trend of tinkering at the edges of the problems that confront Indian Education System. Madam Finance Minister announced strengthening of more than 15,000 schools, starting 750 Eklavya schools and 100 new Sainik schools which will have a great impact on the school education. On the other hand, Legislation of the Higher Education Commission of India will resolve the various challenges faced by higher education in our country. The budget consists of the apt strategies which will help in speedy implementation of National Education Policy (NEP).

Another point which deserves huge appreciation in the budget is the development of the National Research Foundation, which outlayed Rs.50,000 Cr over 5 years. It will strengthen the overall research ecosystem of the country and help India emerge as the R&D epicentre of the world.”

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE UPDATES: Sagar Saxena, Project Head, Spectrum Metro

“The real estate has been provided the right kind of impetus today by the Finance Minister. The measures announced by her will make the industry more resilient and also help the industry to blossom further. The intent of the government is clear, it wants to lend a helping hand for the sector to grow and achieve the twin objective of providing housing to the masses as well generating more jobs in the sector through increased sales of houses. The retail and commercial real estate was also looking at some support measures but has to contend with little though.

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE UPDATES: Teo - Shaan Sarin Founder and CEO

“Needless to state, pandemic impact on every sector. This Union budget 2021 should look into the need of an hour i.e., GST relief. As Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that the budget is going to boost Indian economy. Being one of the largest industry sector members we are looking forward towards spurt in our sector. After pandemic restaurateur’s industry and lease in certain areas of management of restaurants and bars. Mr. Shaan adds, upgrading in the regulations is required as time passes so that recovery can be done in this sector. States to get 41 per cent share of taxes as per the 15th Finance Commission recommendation. The government has accepted the recommendation. Yes, on exports seems to be fruitful for this financial year.”

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE UPDATES: Ricky Sethi Co-founder, Talli Station

“We are expecting that the rusty dusty clouds of pandemic are going to clear the sky and sunshine will secure the land in restaurateurs’ industry as well. Highlighting the need for a sharp sun beam amidst licensing and other compliances Mr. Sethi said the boost is indeed to take back the restaurateur industry to the growth track in FY21-22. Budget 2021 relies on 6 pillars, says Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. As it is India’s largest hospitality industry, we are hoping to get an opportunity to optimize our offerings and boost revenue too. Competition spike is a fierce point in this arena as consumer demand and preferences are transforming towards digitally under account of the government's Digital Bharat Scheme.”

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE UPDATES: Deepak Kapoor, Director, Gulshan

The Finance Minister has come out for a robust roadmap for the real estate sector which will help the government vision to achieve ‘Housing For all’ by 2022. The steps announced by the FM give a sense of the seriousness and intent of the government to support the important realty industry that can provide jobs to millions of people and strength to the GDP. Various announcements by the FM today to improve the infrastructure today will also go a long in improving the real estate industry as these measures will help formation and sustenance of new micro markets on the back of new highways and expressways

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE UPDATES: Kanz- Dilpreet Singh Wasan, Partner, Kanz

"It is very encouraging to see the focus on healthcare in the budget and a 137 per cent increase in outlay in healthcare and wellness over last year. Budget 2021 provides every opportunity for economy to capture pace and grow sustainably. Govt proposes capital expenditure for FY22 at Rs 5.54 lakh crore. We are looking forward to attain good results from Union Budget presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. "

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE UPDATES: Mishu Ahluwalia, COO & Investor Relations at KIWI “Real-time Freelancing Platform”

“The 2021 budget was awaited with a lot of expectations and of that most have been met. The government has been supporting startups and business innovation. The budget continues to keep the focus sharp on digital transformation and the next phase of economic recovery after the Covid-induced market recession, with everything going digital, the launch of an online platform for gig workers will definitely ease the process of work.
Extension of tax holiday for startups is a welcome step. There have been many steps taken by the government to help startups, which include broadening the definition of startups, simplifying regulations, providing income tax exemptions, and setting up a Rs 10,000 crore. The pandemic, coupled with some schemes rolled out by the Indian Government has given a push to entrepreneurship in the last 12 months. More and more people are now looking at starting up, and turning their dreams into reality, while solving real-world problems. The startup sector is gifted with the Tax Holiday with the extension ineligibility for one more year till 2021. The tax exemption on capital gains till March 2022 will push more investments and help India's startups beat pandemic blues”.

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE UPDATES: Ashish Bhatia, Founder and MD, India Accelerator
 
“It’s great to see the Union Government’s focus on startups after such a hard year as all the businesses saw a steep phase during this pandemic but still most of the business coped up or are copping up. As a businessman, I welcome the Government’s initiative for the companies act,2013 for small companies by increasing their threshold for capitalization to not exceeding Rs 50 lakhs to not exceeding Rs 2cr and turnover not exceeding 2cr to not exceeding Rs. 20 cr. This is a good initiative for all the startups who are still fighting to survive during this pandemic. She also proposed to incentivize the incorporation of companies through a single person which will lead to the ease of doing business. Both the initiatives will lead to more entrepreneurs and startups in the country. Overall a balanced budget with a key focus in making India.  
 
Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE UPDATES: Eela Dubey- Founder at EduFund

"India's maiden digital budget saw a liberal approach to fiscal figures, re-introduced tax-free infrastructure bonds, and dividend exemption from InVIT. This is an excellent time for individuals to focus on their personal finance. What matters for a middle-class person saving today is clarity in personal taxation, stable investment regime and risk-adjusted financial assets available. Today we have a confluence of all the 3 in India. If you are a person wanting to embark on your financial journey today is an ideal time. The best time to invest was yesterday, the second-best time to invest is today."

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE UPDATES: Akshay Taneja, MD, TDI Infratech

The Union Budget 2021-22 was long awaited by the real estate sector, as it could have lead to a serious turn of events while the country’s economy is still recovering from the brunt of lockdown. However, instead of going the direct way, FM has chose to initiate stimulus in the related infrastructure sector, which will be bringing job opportunities to the construction workers and laborers who have suffered last year due to complete shutdown.We have seen that  commercial properties have seem to interest a large magnitude of people, especially after the global pandemic as they want to have an extra source of income. It is good news that real estate has emerged as one of the safest investment option; with easing of InvITs/REITs, the sector is set to benefit further. Welcome the step of - Affordable housing loan deduction from taxable income extended by another year.

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE UPDATES: Ankit Saluja, Co-Founder, Premium Autoz

Today as our Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presents India's first digital budget, we all kept eyeing what it has in store for us! The whole auto industry was hoping that the budget will assist us in recovering from the Covid-19-induced economic shock. Nevertheless, we were already expecting scrappage policy. And then

Union Budget 2021 addressed provisions for a voluntary vehicle scrappage policy. Wherein, vehicles to undergo fitness test - this goes by as follows,

A. 20 years for passenger vehicles.

B. 15 years for commercial vehicles.

As we're into pre-owned cars, this point is what matters to us the most.

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE UPDATES: Jyoti Bhandari, Founder and CEO, Lovak Capitals Pvt. Ltd.

Budget 2021 focuses more on Capital Expenditure and expansion nto Infrastructure Development a as this segment is vital for economic revival. Govt major thrust on to make significant Capex into Roads, Railways, Ports Infrastructure, water transportation etc. This will create employment opportunities in rural as well as semi urban areas. Infra-Allied activities will accelerate sectors those are linked with this segment and will likely to gain handsomely.

These Expenditures will create consumer demands in the economy as more people will be employed in infra projects and they will get enough cash to spend on consumers goods. Positive for Indian consumption story!

Globally most of the major economies have concerns for climate change, decarbonisation, digitalisation, governance etc. As these have become important issues in most of the global forms. The pace for ESG compliance will only accelerate from here on. The early movers companies following ESG matrix will get the benefit of these themes and will be able to raise both visibility and capital post-pandemic times.

It’s an overall positive budget aiming to revive the economy .

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE UPDATES: Srinath Ravichandran, Co-founder & CEO, AgniKul Cosmos

"We are pleased to hear the government’s decision, an extension of tax holiday for start-ups by one more year which is a great initiative to boost the startup space in the post-pandemic world. Further an extension to 4 years actually makes it apply for hardware startups as well which usually take a little more time to get to a revenue stage. 

As far as the space sector is concerned, The Department of Space has been given Rs 13,949 crore of which almost 60% has been earmarked for infrastructure. We believe this would indirectly help the private space ecosystem if seen in the light of the IN-SPACe entity as IN-SPACe would allow private players to access infrastructure. Allocation to NSIL is also a good sign which continues to highlight that the Government wants to keep the focus on private initiatives in the space sector.

Also, the government’s move to incentivize the incorporation of one-person companies will benefit startups and innovators to a great extent. Hike in the capital budget is also a beneficial step in strengthening and expanding the initiative of Make in India to the next level. "

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE UPDATES: Madhusudanan R, Cofounder, YAP by M2P Solutions

"The budget proposal to allocate Rs 1500 crores to boost Digital payments is a welcome step, this along with the Acceptance Development Fund set up by RBI should really push for higher adoption of Digital payments in smaller towns.

The fund should be utilised for absorbing some of the capex required in deployment of Phyiscal POS machines. The CoVID induced habit around digital payments will have to be sustained by policy measures that will allow opening up of new sectors like transit, parking etc, there are interesting startup's that are doing meaningful work, the funds can be put to good use in some of those use cases."

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE UPDATES: Rameswar Mandali, CEO and Founder, SKILL MONKS

“Improving employment opportunities at the higher educational level by allocating INR 3000 crore in National Apprenticeship Training Scheme is a palpable consideration in the Union Budget 2020-21, for students from both non-science and technology streams. This will ensure that skilling is prioritised and enable students to be future-ready, in the domain of their choice and stay relevant in a dynamic market environment.

In addition from a start-up point view, the Finance Minister’s proposal to extend tax holiday by one more year and capital gains exemption up to March 2022 is a welcome move and will enable the start-up ecosystem in the country to get onto a strong footing.”

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE UPDATES: Shachindra Nath, Executive Chairman & Managing Director, U GRO Capital

"Broadly evaluating, the Union Budget 2021 is a significant attempt by the government, to accept a higher fiscal deficit and enhance expenditure towards economic revival. It is appreciative of the government to put a special emphasis towards providing relief to the tax payers and reducing the burden posed by COVID-19. One of the key highlights of the budget is setting-up of the development finance institution (DFI) towards infrastructure financing and institutional framework to purchase corporate bond, which would solve the issue of liquidity for the infrastructure sector and corporate bond market. Also, with the path-breaking initiative of instituting Asset Reconstruction Company (ARC) and asset management company (AMC) for NPA consolidation, banks have been allowed to streamline their focus on the much needed growth.

The government has reduced the threshold for NBFCs to initiate recovery under the SARFAESI Act, 2002. This is an effective step towards ushering credit discipline and in the long-term will increase the penetration of credit to small businesses. The government has also doubled its allocation towards MSMEs, which would greatly support their revival and the eventual growth. Holistically, the Union Budget 2021 is an encouraging event, yet we optimistically look forward to a distinctive support for NBFCs, with a framework to provide them sufficient liquidity, while also furthering the credit guarantee scheme support to the MSMEs."

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE UPDATES: Sunil Gupta, MD & CEO, Avis India

"We welcome the Union Budget tabled by the Finance Minister today, especially the announcement of voluntary scrapping policy. This comes in as a big support to automakers, who will benefit from this policy. Moreover, personal vehicles older than 20 years and commercial vehicles older than 15 years to undergo a fitness test is indeed focused on phasing out older vehicles. It will in turn promote the use of more eco-friendly vehicles. The specifics of the policy will be announced by MoRTH in the days to come. The annual budget brings in good news for commercial vehicles as well with 18,000 crore to be allotted for procuring and maintaining 20,000 buses as well as the construction of road infra to support the sale of commercial vehicles. It is therefore the highest ever allocation of 1.08 lakh crore to MoRTH for capital. We further welcome the FM’s move on increasing custom duties on some auto parts by 15%."

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE UPDATES: Sucheta Shah, Executive Director, Atlas Integrated Finance Ltd. 

 "An extremely well structured and a forward looking budget encompassing all sectors and detailed steps for implementation. The ground level reforms in Health Infra, Agriculture, finance, education sectors have been supported  by the necessary acts and regulations from the top level. The Development Financial Institution, Increase in FDI in insurance and the PSE and PSB divestment will provide the much needed boost to the financial sector. Tax consistency and transparency are a big relief for tax payers.  The budget comes when India is trying to get its growth back on track and create enough jobs for its workforce. Hence we think, its overall a growth budget providing huge employment opportunities for the Indian economy.The development of Infrastructure is fundamental to the revival of the economy and this continued boost from the government will have a multiplier effect on various sectors that provide material & equipment for construction & development. We believe that the Infra sector will be at a great advantage as each sub sector , shipping, railways , roads, energy and power has been addressed with specific reforms. Also, the introduction of DFI and a Single security market code will enhance the liquidity in the secondary markets and enable smooth capital market  operations. Overall, the budget is poised to bring us closer to  the dream of an Aatma Nirbhar Bharat and positioning India as an alternative global destination for manufacturing and innovation."

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE UPDATES: Rameesh Kailasam, CEO, IndiaTech.org. 

"Startups and unicorns had many expectations from Budget 2021. The Budget announcements are directionally supportive of the startup ecosystem. However, there is a substantial need to provide actionable regulatory solutions and reliefs for the sector which are more problem solving in nature. There are many regulatory reliefs that could have unlocked the startup eco-system and ushered wealth creation within India which have not featured in this Budget. There is a need for the Government to also swiftly address pressing compliance and duplicity concerns around GST to truly enable a stronger environment for startups and unicorns to grow."

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE UPDATES: Mahesh Ramamoorthy, MD - Banking Solutions, FIS India

“The Union Budget 2021 has announced significant steps for promotion of digital payments and less-cash economy. The government has provided strong impetus to digital transactions in the country by allocating Rs 1,500 crores for promotion of digital modes of payment. This will encourage FinTech companies to offer innovative and enriched customer experience. The Finance Minister has given major incentive to MSMEs who carry out 95% of their transactions digitally. To further boost digital transactions and reduce compliance burden for MSMEs, the government has increase the limit for tax audit to Rs 10 crore from Rs 5 crore. This will not only encourage MSMEs to adopt digital platforms for business transaction, but also will boost the overall digital payment ecosystem. The FinTech industry is playing an important role in penetration of financial services to grassroots, the Union Budget has extended the eligibility for claiming tax holiday for start-ups, including those in Fintechs by one more year – till 31st March, 2022, and the government to incentivised the funding availability for start-ups, extended the capital gains exemption for investment by one more year - till 31st March, 2022. This will encourage Fintech start- ups to invest more in resources for future growth.”

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE UPDATES: Vikas R Bhatia, Managing Director, Rieco Industries

''We are happy with the government’s vision towards the growth of manufacturing industries in double digits. We believe the government has taken meaningful steps to bolster the growth of the manufacturing industry through PLI Schemes to create manufacturing global champions for Atmanirbhar Bharat which has been announced in 13 sectors. This initiative will help in strengthening the Indian manufacturing segment and sustain the Indian economy''.

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE UPDATES: Amit Nigam, COO & Executive Director of BANKIT

"Though we were looking forward to some changes, we welcome the moves taken by our honourable FM on growing the Fintech Industry. We are looking forward to the setting up of the world class Fintech hub in Gujarat International Tech City. Also, the allocation of ₹1500 crores to boost digital transactions will make for a good start and open more opportunities in the future. We hoped on seeing a GST rebate which isn’t seen in the budget."

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE UPDATES: Gautam Das, Co-Founder & CEO, Oorjan Cleantech Private Limited

''The budget focuses on transition to alternative sources of energy and providing support to ailing power distribution companies. There has been no major announcement with respect to solar energy except a nominal increase in custom duty for solar inverters and lanterns to boost make in India mission. With more details coming in, we are hopeful that even the power ministry (MoP) will roll out pro-solar reforms including abolition of the restriction on net-metering".

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE UPDATES: Rajesh Gupta, Co-Founder and Director, Busy Accounting Software

"With the country that is still trying to emerge from the health and economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic, the MSME sector, which forms the backbone of the economy, faced challenges during the period of pandemic in terms of growth and survival. Pandemic has further aggravated these challenges and made it difficult for many small and medium enterprises to survive in the industry and maintain their generated revenue. The entire sector expected a lot from the government in the Union Budget to bring their business back on track and gain back the momentum that they lost during the lockdown. They had high hopes from Budget 2021 to give them relief and support financially too. We are welcoming the decision of our honourable finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman who increased the number of investments and allocated Rs 15,700 crore to the MSME sector, besides laying a special framework of Data Analytics, Machine Learning (ML), and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to assist the entire MSME ecosystem and develop them digitally. Still, there are some areas such as Tax regime, Digitalisation, cash flow, easing financing norms for MSMEs, where the stakeholders are hopeful for more positive outcomes from the government."

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE: Pallav Bihani, Founder & CEO at Boldfit

"Union Budget 2021 Brings Cheer for Healthcare & Wellness Industry

In a pandemic impacted year, significant allocation in the Union Budget 2021 for healthcare and wellness industry is commendable. The outlay for the healthcare industry is - 137 per cent higher at Rs 2,23,846 crore - a whopping high compared to the industry’s previous budget allocations. This allocation also includes the much needed Rs 35,000 crore for Covid-19 vaccines to ensure swift rollout of mass vaccination and restoring economy sooner than expected.

Ensuring wellness and nutrition for all, the Union Budget 2021 merged the supplementary nutrition programme with the Poshan Abhiyaan to launch Mission Poshan 2.0. The new programme aims to reinforce nutritional content, delivery, outreach, and outcome. This way the government has targeted well in both preventive & corrective health care.
Government has allowed opening company with a single owner, encouraging solopreneurship and rebuild start-ups. No doubt that this will soon to become the most lauded government initiative. Amid pandemic, government strikes balance. Meanwhile, (One Person Company) OPC would encourage entrepreneurs to grow as OPCs without any restrictions on paid-up capital and turnover. With this, OPCs have the flexibility to convert into any other type of company at any point in time.
Startup ecosystem emerged during 2018-2020. This timeframe played a catalytic role for startups with policy and tax reforms. Extending the eligibility for tax holidays to startups for one more year is a positive step. Additionally, extending capital gain tax exemption for investment in start-up by one more year is conducive for investors to invest and for startups to keep going. These two extensions will take down the burden and pressure off from the investors and startups as well, attracting more investments. 
In short, this is a progressive budget and addresses aspirations of new India. The much-feared imposition of Covid cess has been aptly missed by the Finance Minister which brings cheer across the industries."

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE UPDATES: Vikram Kumar, CEO, Lrnable Group

“Many congratulations to the nation, government and citizens for such a forward-looking budget 2021-22. This budget as the FM aptly puts is a digital budget, which endeavours to respond to the contraction in our economy due to the Pandemic, and also, to the year of 8th  Census of Independent India having a population with highest demographic dividend across the globe. 

Talking specifically about edtech and skill providing sectors, the budget outlay doesn’t give much clarity. The same INR 3000 crore for skilling sector this year too, like last year, will certainly help in the making of Atmanirbhar Bharat, yet an increased fund was required to bridge the gaps. 

The steps including, the establishment of more Sainik Schools and Eklvya schools, set-up of  Higher Education Commission in India, this FY, for accreditation, regulation and funding for higher education institutions and a Central University in Leh, are commendable and will lead to reinvigorating human capital. 

Besides, to benchmark skill qualifications and assessment, the country’s collaboration with other countries are expected to advise the country’s institutions/organisations/industries on the global best practices. 

Part A of the Budget, a vision for Atmanirbhar Bharat, reflects the inclusion of development for all, education for all and opportunities for youth, along with a large focus on developing  India as a champion in the manufacturing field in the World.  

This can be responded effectively with a central and unified framework to enhance and connect skills of candidates to potential employers with a dual objective – elevate employability and increase the ROI for companies via the hiring of right resources. 

The FM requested that the corporate must support the economy to reset the country’s sustainable growth, which in a way, also talks about the talent pool it receives as per the  21st-century skill needs apart from the investment it puts in supporting small ventures and entrepreneurs. And for the talented-cum-industry-skill-fit youth, the government’s focus on  a unified framework of learning, upskilling and hiring till retiring, will ease the  struggles of students, trainers, recruiters as well as corporate, at large, with an assured  economic growth.” 

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE UPDATES: Harshit Jain MD , CEO and Founder, Doceree 

"This year’s budget by Hon’ble Finance Minister is pragmatic, positive and committed to the healthcare sector which needed a deliberate boost post unprecedented virus outbreak last year. The announcement of centrally funded scheme - Aatmanirbhar Health Yojana - with an outlay of Rs 64,180 crore over six years in addition to National Health Mission is a welcome step towards strengthening primary, secondary and tertiary healthcare in the country. Setting up of 15 Health Emergency Centres shows the government’s intent to be future-ready to address any healthcare crises. It is commendable that the government has put healthcare on the forefront, putting focus on curative and preventive health and wellbeing. The allocation this year is likely to be around Rs 2,23,846 crore which is a whopping over 130% rise from the budget last year. The proposals would make quality healthcare accessible and affordable, besides standardizing healthcare infrastructure across the country."

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE UPDATES: Anmol Arora, CEO at DocVita

"137% increase in health budget, and allotment of ₹64,180 cr towards PM Atmanirbhar Swasth Bharat Yojana will provide the much-needed boost to our country’s health infrastructure. With healthcare at the forefront, and health & wellness taking a centre stage, the 17000 rural & 11000 urban centres are expected to pave the way for a new era in preventive health for India.

As a result of this investment, our country’s digital health ecosystem will leapfrog into the future, and empower every Indian - whether living in rural or urban areas to access healthcare. The new health systems and integrations will help unlock the opportunities for telemedicine as well. This will be one of the world’s largest digital health ecosystems. With this impetus & motivation to health systems, we have the opportunity to lead & set an example for the rest of the world."

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE UPDATES: Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations (FADA) President, Vinkesh Gulati 

“FADA is happy to note that the Hon’ble Finance Minister has finally announced the much awaited Scrappage Policy, though voluntary to phase out old vehicles. If we take 1990 as base year, there are approximately 37L CVs and 52L PVs eligible for voluntarily scrappage. As an estimate, 10% of CV and 5% of PV may still be plying on road. We still need to see the fine prints to access the kind of incentives which will be on offer and thus have a +ve effect on retail.

The 6,575 km Highway works proposed in Tamil Nadu, Kerala, West Bengal and Assam and another 19,500 km work for Bharat Mala project will definitely add fillip to much needed revival of Commercial Vehicles especially M&HCV segment.

Government’s reduction of customs duty on steel products to 7.5% will benefit Auto OEMs. We hence expect the benefit to trickle down to end customers thus helping in boosting of demand.

While we expected disposable income for individuals to increase with enhancement of IT slabs and depreciation benefit on vehicles for individuals, the same has not been taken into consideration.”

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE UPDATES: L Viswanathan, Partner, Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas

“The budget is focused on growth and comes with several initiatives in the infrastructure sector that can have a multiplier effect.  It caters to the need for a special financial institution for funding infrastructure projects which require “long term patient capital”.  The proposal for enabling debt financing of InVITs and ReITs by FPIs is welcome, this will accelerate the movement of assets from Government and Developers to InVITs.  This will help in developing sustainable infrastructure that can be serviced over long term and also enhance the governance of these important assets.

Asset monetisation by Government will serve the twin objective of making resources available to the Government for creating public and social infrastructure and at the same time attract private capital for operation and management of these assets.  This will hopefully help in recycling of capital.

Consolidation of the Securities Laws into a single code requires deep thought and analysis and steps to strengthen the GIFT IFSC framework and the corporate bond market are expected to increase financial penetration as well as create liquidity for corporates.

Setting up of an ARC and AMC for takeover of stressed debts and disposal to AAF’s is likely to give “holding power” to the banks for assets which are not priced properly in the current environment and at the same time will serve the need to clean up the balance sheet of the banks.

Strengthening of the NCLT framework for faster resolution of cases and alternative methods of debt resolutions indicates perhaps that a Pre-pack Regime will be introduced and we may move to a regular e-court system.  Privatization of public sector banks should also be seen in conjunction with the RBI consultation paper on ownership of banks and indicates corporate ownership of banks may be on the anvil.

On the whole it sets the right framework for growth, asset monetisation, divestment and financial reforms that are much needed for India to take centre stage in the post CoVID world.”

Defence Sector Perspective l  Budget 2021

Persptive of Anuj Prasad, Partner and Head - Aerospace and Defence

"An 18% increase in budgetary allocation for capital procurement goes  some way in recognising the urgent need of modernisation and weapon enhancement requirements of the armed forces. That said given that capital procurement expenditure for the previous year exceeded the budgetary allocation by more than Rs. 20,000 crore a lot more needed to be done given the current geopolitical scenario and the glaring gaps in military preparedness."  

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE UPDATES: Atul Rai, CEO, Staqu

"In the Union Budget 2021, FM Nirmala Sitharaman made several encouraging announcements when it comes to India’s technology sector as well as the startup ecosystem. It was announced that cutting-edge tech including data analytics, AI, ML, and MCA-21 version 3.0 will be launched to have additional modules for e-adjudication, consultation, and compliance management and monitoring. This, along with the proposed extension of tax holiday for start-ups by one more year, will enhance ease of doing business and encourage the next generation of tech companies to step up and carry the mantle of development towards a digital-first future in line with the PM’s Digital India mission. The Finance Minister also proposed to revise the definition of small companies under Companies Act, 2013 by increasing their threshold for capitalization to not exceeding INR 2 crore from the current INR 50 lakh and turnover to not exceeding INR 20 crore from the current INR 2 crore. With this step, the Government aims to benefit about two lakh companies.

We further welcome the FM’s plans to incentivize incorporation of one-person companies (OPCs). Besides allowing a company to convert into any other type at any time, the Government has reduced the residency limit for an Indian citizen to set up one person company from 182 to 120 days while allowing NRIs to establish OPCs in India. This move will provide a big boost to startups and innovators by enabling them to grow without regulatory restriction on paid up capital and turnover, thereby bolstering the startup ecosystem and the economy at large."

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE UPDATES: Ayush Mishra. CEO, Tattvan E-clinics 

Covid-19 made us realise the current state of healthcare system in India and opened up new avenues for segments like telemedicine, mobile operator services, online pharmacy etc. We are welcoming the decision made by the government to make ‘Health and Well Being’ the first pillar of the Union Budget in the Covid era. The Atma Nirbhar Health programme will provide the impetus for the adoption of advanced digital health systems in India and will make our healthcare sector better and stronger than ever before. The increased amount of healthcare investment in the budget will help invest more in new trends coming up in the healthcare sector such as mobile operator services, telemedicine, Machine learning, Data science, etc. which will prepare us to face any emergencies in the future. Not only urban, but rural parts of the country also faced a lot of difficulties during the period of pandemic which highlighted the availability of less medical facilities in these areas. The budget will also boost the morale of startups and private players operating in the telemedicine segment to increase the current coverage of the locations including tier-2 and tier-3 cities for providing advanced healthcare facilities in these areas.

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE UPDATES: Sahil Sharma, Co-Founder & CEO, GigIndia

"The Union Budget 2022 announced by the Finance Minister will provide a shot in the arm for gig and platform workers, given the decision to extend social security benefits to this cohort. Moreover, they would be now covered under the ESIC (Employee State Insurance Corporation) scheme since minimum wages will apply to all such workers. The other highlights are a new portal for collecting data of gig employees, migrant labourers and construction workers. This information will be useful in providing gig workers with health and insurance facilities. Finally, the decision to allow women to work in all these categories as well as in night shifts, backed by suitable safeguards, is most welcome too. Taken together, such measures will streamline the gig economy, transforming it into a more organised sector. Consequently, this should help attract more talent in the coming days."

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE UPDATES: Manish Bhatnagar, Managing Director, SKF India

“Concentrating on the revival of the economy, this budget is totally one of its kind. Along with bringing cutting edge technology, increasing the demand for new commercial vehicle (CV)and Passenger vehicles(PV), creating new jobs, schemes like the PLI and voluntary scrappage policy are likely to to nurture and boost the Indian manufacturing industry to become an integral part of the global supply chains. 
Furthermore, ensuring liquidity in the economy and unhindered flow of capital, the package for roads and railways infrastructure is bound to give an impetus to the covid-hit economy. The robust push to infrastructure including economic corridors, manufacturing and MSME’s collectively, is likely to help boost demand for heavy & medium duty CV’s”.

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE UPDATES: Nadia Sood, CEO & Co-founder CreditEnable

"The reduction of paid up capital requirements for businesses to incorporate, the ability of non resident Indians to incorporate all are good steps forward for India to improve its start up scene. What will be important however is how the deployment of the additional Rs 15,700 cr is deployed to ensure existing MSMEs which make up the largest contribution of India’s GDP are supported to recover from COVID. Particularly in terms of financial infrastructure: the rapid implementation of OCEN will be critical to India’s recovery which will also depend on MSMEs are able to secure debt quickly and at reasonable rates."

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE UPDATES: Raj N, Founder and Chairman of Zaggle

"The Hon. Finance Minister has to be commended for creating a fine balance between resources and requirements to usher economic growth. The move to set up a Fintech hub in GIFT City is a very welcome one.  In fact there is a need to create more of such hubs in the country for FinTech’s to grow. The decision is a clear validation by the Finance Minister that FinTech’s are an important part of the financial ecosystem. It would be really important to accord industry status to FinTech’s. Many other announcements which are important and notable include the changes in the regulatory and compliance front like allowing a 1 person company and also the change in days for computing residency status of NRIs. The Budget has also allocated Rs 1500 crore to boost digital payments which is also a very significant step in the right direction. It will definitely help in further digitizing the Indian economy.

The FM has paid adequate attention to the stressed assets of the banking industry. The move to set up an Asset Reconstruction Company and Asset Management Company to consolidate and take over the existing stressed debt is a very good one. It will help in managing and disposing of the assets to Alternate Investment Funds and other potential investors for eventual value realization resulting in the cleaning of bad books of public sector banks. Fears about introduction of Wealth Tax and increase in LTCG tax have been allayed and that is a very praise worthy thing to happen in this Budget. In my Opinion, the entire Fintech industry will benefit , be it Lending, Automation of the Financial processes , Digital Payments , P2P lending , NeoBanks and the collaboration between the Banks and Fintechs. Recognising Fintech as an industry would have been much sweeter but overall it’s a 360 degree growth for Fintechs."

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE UPDATES: Aditya Khemka, Fund Manager InCred AMC

"Healthcare was a key focus of this budget. 64,000 crores would be spent on public health infrastructure over next 6 years. This coupled with Ayushman Bharat (public health insurance) scheme should aid a large part of our population to access and afford modern healthcare and medicine. Pharma companies and allied sectors may witness higher than historical volume growth over the next few years."

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE UPDATES: Varun Khanna, Director and Co founder, Fullife Healthcare

“The increase in budget allocation to the healthcare sector by 137% from last year shows how committed the government is in building accessibility for all. We are happy to see the different schemes announced by the government including the allocation of Rs 35,000 crores for COVID-19 vaccines and the focus on primary, secondary and tertiary healthcare, which will help India, build a more strong health base. For key industry players and manufacturers like us, we are glad to be a part of a national effort to make India a hub for high-quality nutrition and healthcare so that we can together achieve the government’s dream of being Atmanirbhar and a healthcare business epicentre for the world. What we additionally want is the economy’s reset for a sustainable year to strengthen deliverance and supply of nutritional outcomes.”

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE UPDATES: Deena Jacob, Co-founder, CFO & Head (Revenue and Growth), Open

"Focus on capex spends and measures to boost health infra is a welcome move in the current environment, both for recovery and for the much-needed health sector. The Finance Minister’s measures for the MSME sector, which includes an allocation of INR 15,700 crores to ease their burdens caused by the pandemic is a great move which implemented in collaboration with multiple channels to reach out to the right target would be a good measure for overall recovery. We are pleased to see the efforts outlined to ease compliance requirements for the start-up community as well as the introduction of incentives such as tax holidays and an extension in capital gains exemption by a year. Delighted to see the digital push with the INR 1500 crore scheme to spur digital payments and the steps such as the increase in tax audit exemptions for companies doing business via digital modes to reiterate the strong intend for digitisation".

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE UPDATES: Raghunandan Saraf, Founder & CEO, Saraf Furniture:  

"Hon'ble Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sithraman by announcing that Modi government will introduce a bill for the development of financial institution has shown a clear path for the growth on financial infrastructure in the Atmanirbhar Bharat. Further, Modi government's announcement of a sharp increase in Capital Expenditure and thus providing Rs 5.54 lakh crores will develop momentum for financial infrastructure domain. Further, the announcement of the development of investor charter should also be welcome as it will protect the hard-earned money of a number of investors."

 

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE UPDATES: Annuj Goel, Managing Director, Goel Ganga Developments:  

"Hon'ble PM Narendra Modi has always laid special emphasis on the ambitious Housing For All and Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) projects. Now, even in Budget 2021, Union Finance Minister Nirmala  Sitharaman by announcing tax holiday for affordable housing, Modi government has made it clear that Housing For All is one of the top priorities of Modi government.

Also, tax exemption for notified affordable rental housing projects in the interest of migrant workers is a win-win both for migrants and realtors. As Hon'ble Nirmala Sitharaman in Union Budget 2021-22 has given special priority to Real Estate, these decisions are bound to show positive impact in realty business in future."

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE UPDATES: Dhruv Agarwala, Group CEO, Housing.com, Makaan.com and Proptiger.com

“Amid a sharp improvement in consumer sentiment with regard to property purchases post the start of the COVID-19 vaccine rollout, the government’s move in the Budget to extend the benefit of additional Rs 1.5 lakh tax deduction on home loan interest, until March 31, 2022, will act as a further impetus to the residential property sector. This move will augur well, especially for the affordable housing segment, which will also benefit from the decision to offer a tax holiday for affordable housing projects for one more year, to boost supply.

The support announced today by the Honourable Finance Minister for rental housing too will go a long way in boosting the real estate market and will ease a lot of pressure points in the rental home market. This will also help migrant workers to a great extent and will support them in remaining in metros and other big cities during times of financial hardships such as the one presented by the Covid-19 pandemic. However, the long-standing demand of the real estate industry to expand the definition of affordable housing so as to include homes priced more than Rs 45 lakhs in big metro cities, has sadly not been addressed.

The infusion of lakhs of crores into India’s infrastructure segment, with a focus on improving connectivity, will be particularly beneficial for India’s housing sector. The proposed debt financing for REITs and InvITs, and the setting up of the Development Financial Institution for augmenting funds for infra and the real estate sector is expected to provide a major fillip to the sector, and will attract more investments in the sector.
  

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE UPDATES: Mohit Goel, CEO, Omaxe Limited

We welcome Budget 2021-22 which lays greater emphasis and outlay on the health, manufacturing and infrastructure sector with an aim to create jobs and boost the economy. State Capitals and tier 2/3 cities will benefit immensely from the government’s focus on sectors like roads and highways, ports, power, urban infrastructure, railways. Add to it, the affordable housing boost, by extending tax holiday for such projects by one year, extending by one year the deadline for first time homebuyers to avail additional Rs 1,50,000 interest deduction on home loan and tax exemption for affordable rental housing, will further boost demand for housing in these cities.

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE UPDATES: Ankit Kansal, Founder and MD, 360 Realtors

The union budget has reiterated the government’s focus on Affordable Housing through concentrated policy impetus in the form of tax exemptions and tax holidays. Another good thing discussed in the budget is the multilayered support to infrastructure. The Budget has announced a host of policies and initiatives to boost urban development, enhance urban infrastructure, monetize freight corridors, upscale power generation capacity, and commence work on numerous large scale roadway & railway projects. The government has also announced huge allocations in the urban Swachh Bharat mission 2.0. These initiatives will boost the overall infrastructure, increase economic productivity, improve the livability index of urban cities alongside building real estate demand in Indian urban corridors.

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE UPDATES: Prasoon Chauhan, Founder & CEO of BlackOpal Group

"After the announcement of easing norms for InvITs/REITs, we are hoping that steps will be taken to regarding the lock-in period of units allotted on a preferential basis, and pricing related to the allotments arising out of the approval of the same unit holders. We are sure that the fresh norms will make more REITs to enter the market as the demand for commercial properties is already high, especially after the pandemic situation that has led people to realize the sound investment opportunity that commercial segment offers. The FM has also announced a new asset reconstruction and asset management company, which is set to ease out the liquidity issue in the market.

Overall, the Budget focused on jobs and fund infusion in MSMEs, which would help the market recover. The real estate sector, being an inseparable part of the economic growth, will also gain from the measures taken to expedite growth in other industries."

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE UPDATES: Pradeep Aggarwal, Founder & Chairman, Signature Global and Chairman, National Council on Affordable Housing, ASSOCHAM

"In Real Estate sector, Affordable Housing is set to get boost from the tax holiday being extended for one more year till March 31, 2022 and Rs1.5 lakh for interest paid on loans to purchase an affordable house being extended another year. The demand for affordable housing is at an all time high, and we will focus on fulfilling it. we will keep contributing to PM Shri Narendra Modi's mission of 'Housing For All'.  The focus of the government on infrastructural development and MSMEs will lead to job creation, which will help people get financially stable. Looking at the experience of people in last one year, affordable housing will get more buyers as people want to secure their lives by owning a home"

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE UPDATES: Amit Modi, Director, ABA Corp & President (Elect), CREDAI - Western UP

Over all it’s a positive budget and we appreciate the huge push towards national infrastructure, with nearly 217 projects worth over Rs 1 lakh crore to be completed under National Infrastructure Pipeline and feel this will really stimulate the national economic cycle, while directly benefiting the rural and urban employment along with indirect job creation in infra related allied industries. There has also been a prioritisation of Affordable housing segment, mainly due to the one-year extension in Tax Holiday for developers of affordable housing projects, along with additional exemption of Rs 1.5 Lakhs for affordable home buyers till March 2022. We are also looking forward to Introduction of a bill to set-up a development finance institution, and await the finer-print on utilization of Rs 20,000 crore capitalisation, whereby up Rs 5 lakh crore will be lent by DFI in next three years’ time. At the same time, we feel that inclusion of low hanging fruits like Single Window Clearance and Industry Status for the Real Estate Sector, along with the much-anticipated increase in rebate on Home Loans for home buyers, would have really brought much needed positive push that the sector was expecting.

The proposed extension of the tax holiday for start-ups by one more year, a tax exemption for relocating funds to IFSC, and a tax holiday for the aircraft leasing business in GIFT city, are some of the other measures that would also help India’s real estate sector as a whole.”

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE UPDATES: Yash Miglani, MD, Migsun Group

“The budget announcement made today by the Honorable Finance Minister are indeed progressive and will help the industry in many ways. The affordable homes market has potential to take care of the housing problem of the citizens of the country to a large extent. The real estate industry is at the cusp of transition in the country and the twin announcement by the FM on rental housing and affordable housing both will provide a lot of support to the sector at this juncture. However, the government could have done more to alleviate the some if the pandemic inflicted pains for the industry which is unfortunately missing. The pandemic has dealt a heavy blow to the industry and any short-term easy financing solution for the developers could have made the deal sweeter”

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE UPDATES: Achal Raina, COO, Raheja Developers

There were hopes in the Budget for real estate as some of the announcements by the government will increase the demand for *Affordable housing and REIT compliant projects.

The developers needed measures that can help them in developing the projects on time such as help in loans from banks, single-window clearance, ITC benefit, etc. These topics were not touched upon by the FM and we expect that the government will take care of these soon. The FM has announced measures that might streamline the funds; the real estate sector need financing for incomplete viable projects, and we hope that banks will extend help to the realty sector".

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE UPDATES: Ashok Gupta, CMD, Ajnara India
“The Finance Minister has rightly given an extension to the additional Rs 1.5 lakh tax deduction on home loan interest till March 2022. This will give a shot in the arm of the real estate developers, especially those who are engaged in providing affordable housing options for the people. This measure was introduced by the FM in July 2019 and has already determined its ability to be a game changer in the affordable homes market. The move to exempt notified affordable rental projects from taxes is also a welcome step in the ,light of the scenario we are confronted with today with a number of migrant workers finding it difficult to find a home for themselves within their budget. In terms of specific relief to the industry which has faced a lot of hardships during the pandemic, there is little to cheer about in this Budget.

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE UPDATES: Anuj Mundra, Chairman & MD, Nandani Creation:
  
  "With focus on Aatmanirbhar Bharat, announcement of establishment of 7 textile parks by Modi government in Budget 2021 should be welcomed with open arms. It's a big boost for the local textile industry. And, this will help India become a world leader in textile sector.

Hon'ble Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her Union Budget 2021 has clearly conveyed a message that this government believes in giving a big shot in the arm of textiles and local manufacturing with special focus on Vocal for Local."   

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE UPDATES: Raman Gupta, Director- branding & construction, GBP Group

The Union Budget was highly awaited by the developer’s community.The real estate industry is at the cusp of transition in the country, therefore the long standing demands of the sector such as single window clearance, industry status and input tax credit needed government’s attention, though they remain unaddressed by FM. The support extended to infrastructure sector  is expected to bring some indirect benefits to real estate sector in terms of better connectivity and increase in job opportunities for laborers/construction workers.

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE UPDATES: Abhishek Bansal, Executive Director, Pacific Group                                                                    
 The Budget announcements made today are pro-real estate industry and addresses some of the concerns of the sector. These measures announced today will provide a lot of relief to the industry which has been badly bruised  by the pandemic. With these announcement, the government will be able to move closer to achieving its goal of ‘Housing For All’ by 2022. Providing more money to the banks and recapitalizing them will also help the real estate indirectly. However, commercial and retail segment of real estate industry has little to be excited about the Budget announcements

 

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE UPDATES: Vijay Verma, CEO, Sunworld Group -

The sector can benefit indirectly from Rs 15,700 crore for MSME in FY22 and Rs 1.97 trillion committed to manufacturing sector for the next five years.  After a tumultuous year, it was important to pump in budget for job creation and strengthening the job-creating sectors and the government has tried to achieve that. The real estate sector is the largest employer and it was hoping for some direct measures, but the Budget turned out to be disappointing. However, the sector will grow with the economy and we are looking for some positive announcements in the coming months.

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE UPDATES: Lokendra Ranawat, Founder & CEO, WoodenStreet:  

"The budget was awaited with a lot of expectations and of that most have been met. Infrastructure & healthcare were the main spotlights of budget 2021 and a large investment has been allocated for the expansion of the road network. Also, just like it was predicted, Startups were given importance in this budget as well. The tax-exempt on the revenue, as well as investments, have been increased by one more year which will be beneficial for the startup growth in the country. On the other hand, the investment in MSMEs and the moratorium on loans of up to 2Cr will also play a crucial role in for the Indian corporates. Privatization of several government-related sectors such as ports will also add to the economic growth and employment generation."

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE UPDATES: Kushagr Ansal,Director, Ansal Housing Limited and President, CREDAI - Haryana- 
The Union Budget 2021-22 will be laying down the roadmap for growth and heightened recovery in the real estate. The extended support given to infrastructure will generate a higher degree of job opportunities for Tier II cities, leading to growth in population and higher demand for residential as well as commercial projects.As expected, the affordable housing has emerged as important segment of the realty industry and FM has duly addressed the biggest concern of the developers and buyers of such projects. Even the rental housing design proposed by the government will solve the problem of residences for migrant workers to a great extent.

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE UPDATES: Prateek Mittal, Executive Director, Sushma Group

The extended support given to infrastructure will generate a higher degree of job opportunities for Tier II cities, leading to growth in population and higher demand for residential and commercial real estate. The support extended to migrant workers, in form of a portal for migrant workers building & construction work has been a positive move in ensuring their safety

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE UPDATES: Uddhav Poddar, MD, Bhumika Group

"The FM has proposed easing of InvITs/REITs, which will help in getting new REITs and attracting fresh investments in the real estate sector.
The creation of a development financial institution is another good announcement as this sector has been suffering due to paucity of patient capital.
It is heartening to see Governments focus towards “housing for all” and accordingly the government has made announcements regarding affordable housing such as to extend eligibility of erstwhile tax sop on home loan up to FY22 and offer tax exemption for notified affordable rental housing projects. We too plan on entering the affordable housing sector this year.
Lastly the creation of bad assets bank / ARC along with recapitalisation of banks are both much needed moves which will help sort out the banking woes to a great extent."

 

 

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE UPDATES: Ravi Singhal, Vice Chairman, GCL Securities Limited:

"Hon'ble Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sithraman by announcing that Modi government will introduce a bill for the development of financial institution has shown a clear path for the growth on financial infrastructure in the Atmanirbhar Bharat. Further, Modi government's announcement of a sharp increase in Capital Expenditure and thus providing Rs 5.54 lakh crores will develop momentum for financial infrastructure domain. Further, the announcement of the development of investor charter should also be welcome as it will protect the hard-earned money of a number of investors."

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE UPDATES: Aditya Chamaria, Managing Director, Damodar Ropeways & Infra Limited
Budget 2021 has been labelled as the budget for 'Aatmanirbhar Bharat'. This budget has been unique in terms of highest ever allocation of NHAI - of Rs 1,18,101 crores. Government aims to complete 11,000km of national highway infrastructure this year. This extended support to boost infrastructure is going to be indirectly boosting the tourism sector with improved connectivity, it would also lead to increased job opportunities in the infrastructure sector leading to improvement in employment conditions for the laborers. Reforms such as GST to get reduced were expected from government to promote eco-friendly mode of travel and transportation such as ropeways

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE UPDATES: Vikas Garg, Deputy Managing Director, MRG World

“Government’s focus  and commitment for the real estate industry can clearly be gauged for the announcement made by the Finance Minister Niramala Sitharaman today. The affordable housing has emerged as important segment of the realty industry and FM has rightly address the biggest concern of the developers and buyers of such projects. Even the rental housing design of the government will solve the problem of residences for migrant workers to a great extent. The push to infrastructure will also benefit the real estate industry indirectly as better infrastructure in the country will help in real estate projects spreading out of compact city limits. A little bit of clarity on Input Tax Credit would have made the matters even better for the industry. All in all, it’s a good budget for the real estate industry.

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE UPDATES: Manoj Gaur, CMD, Gaurs Group

The announcements regarding the development of highways, electrification, migrant workers, will strengthen the economy and start the recovery process. The focus on infrastructure and job creation will indirectly benefit the real estate sector. As expected, Affordable Housing was once again the focus as the Government is moving towards 'Housing for all'. The relaxations such as tax holiday for one more year will go a long way in helping the segment prosper. Elimination of double tax for NRIs on foreign retirement funds will encourage NRIs to invest in real estate assets. Though the number of announcements regarding the real estate sector was few, the sector is all set to gain from the measures taken to strengthen the economy through job creation and asset management. The players in affordable housing segment will get encouragement from tax holiday being extended for one more year; we would see more developers entering the segment in the coming year. The buyers also got benefit when the government extended Rs 1.5 loans to purchase affordable house by one year. But, the long standing demand of giving industry status to the sector has again been ignored.

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE UPDATES: Kapil Kapur, Director-Sales, Strategy & Business Development, Bullmen Realty
“The Budget announcement made by the Finance Minister today addresses an important problem in the real estate industry today, i.e. housing for the migrant workers. The decision to provide exemption from tax to the notified affordable rental housing projects will maximize the migrant workers to get a home of their choice in a big city at lower payment. However, the government did not address the long pending demand of the industry to expand the definition of affordable house. The present limit of Rs 45 lakhs as the price of a house to be called affordable is too small and must have been raised to Rs 75 lakhs

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE UPDATES:Nagaraju Routhu, CEO, Hero Realty

The budget comes as a relief for the reeling economy post pandemic brought a one of kind slowdown. FM has tried to extend support to sectors that raises demand and improves consumer sentiment with the much-needed stimulus. The strong push given to infrastructure with promises of  delivering highway infra work of around 8,500-km of highways by March 2022 will be directly or indirectly benefiting the real estate sector. We were hoping this budget would address issues of single window clearance and industry status to the sector, but that has been left untouched. We are looking forward that government will direct attention towards these demands, which are unanimously  being asked by the real estate community. An additional support by government with proposed easing of InvITs/REITs, will be helpful in getting new REITs and attracting fresh investments in the real estate sector.

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE UPDATES: Divya Jain, Co-Founder, SafeJob

"Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented Budget 2021 in the Parliament today. This budget was significant as it was expected to revive the economy reeling under the COVID-19 crisis. Almost all the sectors were adversely affected due to COVID-19 pandemic. Of all, perhaps the education sector faced major challenges. As schools and colleges largely remained shut, due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

The strengthening of 15000 schools for the effective implementation of National Education Policy is highly welcomed. These schools are suggested to mentor and work as a model for the NEP implementation across the country. Along with this, the establishment of 100 new Sainik schools in collaboration with NGOs and private organizations will help in providing standard education to remote areas of the country. Government has also announced to set up a Higher Education Commission responsible for the accreditation and regular funding of the Colleges and Universities providing better synergy to these institutions. Realigning apprenticeship for students from Diploma in Engineering will get an allocated fund of Rs. 3000 crore increasing knowledge transfer through on-the-job learning and customized training that meets industry standards. Government will also collaborate with UAE for skill development and deployment and has taken a few innovative initiatives to maintain and increase the quality of the research ecosystem in the country by collaborating with Japan and many more countries in the future to help in."

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE UPDATES: Rahul Garg, Founder, Moglix

"A digital budget for a digital India! The 2021 Union Budget takes a calibrated approach in shaping the government’s fiscal policy and responding to opportunities and challenges on our way towards being self-reliant over the long term. The budget strikes the right notes for developing the financial corpus and physical infrastructure needed to incentivize manufacturing enterprises to make in India for the world. The outlay for the National Infrastructure Pipeline through 35% higher CAPEX spending on multimodal logistics and affordable housing, and extension of projects will increase the scale and strength of India’s supply chain infrastructure. The special framework for easy exit, and duty alterations will augment the ease of doing business for MSMEs, enabling small businesses of today to become global manufacturers of tomorrow."

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE UPDATES:  Anand K., CEO, SRL Diagnostics

“I congratulate the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman for presenting a dynamic budget that is holistic and integrated with focus on Health & Well-being, Inclusive Development, Human Capital, Innovation and R&D, along with primary, secondary and tertiary healthcare. The budget allocation of INR. 2, 23,846 crore for the healthcare sector in the present pandemic context will give the much required impetus to the sector and its very encouraging to see that the government has showcased a positive intent towards strengthen healthcare sector. With a clear thrust on vaccination drive, the additional budget allocation of Rs 35,000 crore for Covid Vaccine is expected to strengthen our nation’s battle against the virus. Further, the announcement with regards to setting up integrated public health labs in each district will help in building a cohesive healthcare system. All of these initiatives showcase the government's commitment to driving an integrated, sustainable, and humane approach to economic growth, that will have long term impact on the health and well-being of generations to come.”

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE UPDATES: Deena Jacob, Co-founder, CFO & Head (Revenue and Growth), Open

"Focus on capex spends and measures to boost health infra is a welcome move in the current environment, both for recovery and for the much-needed health sector. The Finance Minister’s measures for the MSME sector, which includes an allocation of INR 15,700 crores to ease their burdens caused by the pandemic is a great move which implemented in collaboration with multiple channels to reach out to the right target would be a good measure for overall recovery. We are pleased to see the efforts outlined to ease compliance requirements for the start-up community as well as the introduction of incentives such as tax holidays and an extension in capital gains exemption by a year. Delighted to see the digital push with the INR 1500 crore scheme to spur digital payments and the steps such as the increase in tax audit exemptions for companies doing business via digital modes to reiterate the strong intend for digitisation".

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE UPDATES: Raghunandan Saraf, Founder & CEO, Saraf Furniture:  

"Hon'ble Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sithraman by announcing that Modi government will introduce a bill for the development of financial institution has shown a clear path for the growth on financial infrastructure in the Atmanirbhar Bharat. Further, Modi government's announcement of a sharp increase in Capital Expenditure and thus providing Rs 5.54 lakh crores will develop momentum for financial infrastructure domain. Further, the announcement of the development of investor charter should also be welcome as it will protect the hard-earned money of a number of investors."

 

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE UPDATES: Annuj Goel, Managing Director, Goel Ganga Developments:  

"Hon'ble PM Narendra Modi has always laid special emphasis on the ambitious Housing For All and Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) projects. Now, even in Budget 2021, Union Finance Minister Nirmala  Sitharaman by announcing tax holiday for affordable housing, Modi government has made it clear that Housing For All is one of the top priorities of Modi government.

Also, tax exemption for notified affordable rental housing projects in the interest of migrant workers is a win-win both for migrants and realtors. As Hon'ble Nirmala Sitharaman in Union Budget 2021-22 has given special priority to Real Estate, these decisions are bound to show positive impact in realty business in future."

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE UPDATES: Dhruv Agarwala, Group CEO, Housing.com, Makaan.com and Proptiger.com

“Amid a sharp improvement in consumer sentiment with regard to property purchases post the start of the COVID-19 vaccine rollout, the government’s move in the Budget to extend the benefit of additional Rs 1.5 lakh tax deduction on home loan interest, until March 31, 2022, will act as a further impetus to the residential property sector. This move will augur well, especially for the affordable housing segment, which will also benefit from the decision to offer a tax holiday for affordable housing projects for one more year, to boost supply.

The support announced today by the Honourable Finance Minister for rental housing too will go a long way in boosting the real estate market and will ease a lot of pressure points in the rental home market. This will also help migrant workers to a great extent and will support them in remaining in metros and other big cities during times of financial hardships such as the one presented by the Covid-19 pandemic. However, the long-standing demand of the real estate industry to expand the definition of affordable housing so as to include homes priced more than Rs 45 lakhs in big metro cities, has sadly not been addressed.

The infusion of lakhs of crores into India’s infrastructure segment, with a focus on improving connectivity, will be particularly beneficial for India’s housing sector. The proposed debt financing for REITs and InvITs, and the setting up of the Development Financial Institution for augmenting funds for infra and the real estate sector is expected to provide a major fillip to the sector, and will attract more investments in the sector.
  

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE UPDATES: Mohit Goel, CEO, Omaxe Limited

We welcome Budget 2021-22 which lays greater emphasis and outlay on the health, manufacturing and infrastructure sector with an aim to create jobs and boost the economy. State Capitals and tier 2/3 cities will benefit immensely from the government’s focus on sectors like roads and highways, ports, power, urban infrastructure, railways. Add to it, the affordable housing boost, by extending tax holiday for such projects by one year, extending by one year the deadline for first time homebuyers to avail additional Rs 1,50,000 interest deduction on home loan and tax exemption for affordable rental housing, will further boost demand for housing in these cities.

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE UPDATES: Ankit Kansal, Founder and MD, 360 Realtors

The union budget has reiterated the government’s focus on Affordable Housing through concentrated policy impetus in the form of tax exemptions and tax holidays. Another good thing discussed in the budget is the multilayered support to infrastructure. The Budget has announced a host of policies and initiatives to boost urban development, enhance urban infrastructure, monetize freight corridors, upscale power generation capacity, and commence work on numerous large scale roadway & railway projects. The government has also announced huge allocations in the urban Swachh Bharat mission 2.0. These initiatives will boost the overall infrastructure, increase economic productivity, improve the livability index of urban cities alongside building real estate demand in Indian urban corridors.

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE UPDATES: Prasoon Chauhan, Founder & CEO of BlackOpal Group

"After the announcement of easing norms for InvITs/REITs, we are hoping that steps will be taken to regarding the lock-in period of units allotted on a preferential basis, and pricing related to the allotments arising out of the approval of the same unit holders. We are sure that the fresh norms will make more REITs to enter the market as the demand for commercial properties is already high, especially after the pandemic situation that has led people to realize the sound investment opportunity that commercial segment offers. The FM has also announced a new asset reconstruction and asset management company, which is set to ease out the liquidity issue in the market.

Overall, the Budget focused on jobs and fund infusion in MSMEs, which would help the market recover. The real estate sector, being an inseparable part of the economic growth, will also gain from the measures taken to expedite growth in other industries."

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE UPDATES: Pradeep Aggarwal, Founder & Chairman, Signature Global and Chairman, National Council on Affordable Housing, ASSOCHAM

"In Real Estate sector, Affordable Housing is set to get boost from the tax holiday being extended for one more year till March 31, 2022 and Rs1.5 lakh for interest paid on loans to purchase an affordable house being extended another year. The demand for affordable housing is at an all time high, and we will focus on fulfilling it. we will keep contributing to PM Shri Narendra Modi's mission of 'Housing For All'.  The focus of the government on infrastructural development and MSMEs will lead to job creation, which will help people get financially stable. Looking at the experience of people in last one year, affordable housing will get more buyers as people want to secure their lives by owning a home"

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE UPDATES: Amit Modi, Director, ABA Corp & President (Elect), CREDAI - Western UP

Over all it’s a positive budget and we appreciate the huge push towards national infrastructure, with nearly 217 projects worth over Rs 1 lakh crore to be completed under National Infrastructure Pipeline and feel this will really stimulate the national economic cycle, while directly benefiting the rural and urban employment along with indirect job creation in infra related allied industries. There has also been a prioritisation of Affordable housing segment, mainly due to the one-year extension in Tax Holiday for developers of affordable housing projects, along with additional exemption of Rs 1.5 Lakhs for affordable home buyers till March 2022. We are also looking forward to Introduction of a bill to set-up a development finance institution, and await the finer-print on utilization of Rs 20,000 crore capitalisation, whereby up Rs 5 lakh crore will be lent by DFI in next three years’ time. At the same time, we feel that inclusion of low hanging fruits like Single Window Clearance and Industry Status for the Real Estate Sector, along with the much-anticipated increase in rebate on Home Loans for home buyers, would have really brought much needed positive push that the sector was expecting.

The proposed extension of the tax holiday for start-ups by one more year, a tax exemption for relocating funds to IFSC, and a tax holiday for the aircraft leasing business in GIFT city, are some of the other measures that would also help India’s real estate sector as a whole.”

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE UPDATES: Yash Miglani, MD, Migsun Group

“The budget announcement made today by the Honorable Finance Minister are indeed progressive and will help the industry in many ways. The affordable homes market has potential to take care of the housing problem of the citizens of the country to a large extent. The real estate industry is at the cusp of transition in the country and the twin announcement by the FM on rental housing and affordable housing both will provide a lot of support to the sector at this juncture. However, the government could have done more to alleviate the some if the pandemic inflicted pains for the industry which is unfortunately missing. The pandemic has dealt a heavy blow to the industry and any short-term easy financing solution for the developers could have made the deal sweeter”

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE UPDATES: Achal Raina, COO, Raheja Developers

There were hopes in the Budget for real estate as some of the announcements by the government will increase the demand for *Affordable housing and REIT compliant projects.

The developers needed measures that can help them in developing the projects on time such as help in loans from banks, single-window clearance, ITC benefit, etc. These topics were not touched upon by the FM and we expect that the government will take care of these soon. The FM has announced measures that might streamline the funds; the real estate sector need financing for incomplete viable projects, and we hope that banks will extend help to the realty sector".

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE UPDATES: Ashok Gupta, CMD, Ajnara India
“The Finance Minister has rightly given an extension to the additional Rs 1.5 lakh tax deduction on home loan interest till March 2022. This will give a shot in the arm of the real estate developers, especially those who are engaged in providing affordable housing options for the people. This measure was introduced by the FM in July 2019 and has already determined its ability to be a game changer in the affordable homes market. The move to exempt notified affordable rental projects from taxes is also a welcome step in the ,light of the scenario we are confronted with today with a number of migrant workers finding it difficult to find a home for themselves within their budget. In terms of specific relief to the industry which has faced a lot of hardships during the pandemic, there is little to cheer about in this Budget.

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE UPDATES: Anuj Mundra, Chairman & MD, Nandani Creation:
  
  "With focus on Aatmanirbhar Bharat, announcement of establishment of 7 textile parks by Modi government in Budget 2021 should be welcomed with open arms. It's a big boost for the local textile industry. And, this will help India become a world leader in textile sector.

Hon'ble Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her Union Budget 2021 has clearly conveyed a message that this government believes in giving a big shot in the arm of textiles and local manufacturing with special focus on Vocal for Local."   

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE UPDATES: Raman Gupta, Director- branding & construction, GBP Group

The Union Budget was highly awaited by the developer’s community.The real estate industry is at the cusp of transition in the country, therefore the long standing demands of the sector such as single window clearance, industry status and input tax credit needed government’s attention, though they remain unaddressed by FM. The support extended to infrastructure sector  is expected to bring some indirect benefits to real estate sector in terms of better connectivity and increase in job opportunities for laborers/construction workers.

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE UPDATES: Abhishek Bansal, Executive Director, Pacific Group                                                                    
 The Budget announcements made today are pro-real estate industry and addresses some of the concerns of the sector. These measures announced today will provide a lot of relief to the industry which has been badly bruised  by the pandemic. With these announcement, the government will be able to move closer to achieving its goal of ‘Housing For All’ by 2022. Providing more money to the banks and recapitalizing them will also help the real estate indirectly. However, commercial and retail segment of real estate industry has little to be excited about the Budget announcements

 

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE UPDATES: Vijay Verma, CEO, Sunworld Group -

The sector can benefit indirectly from Rs 15,700 crore for MSME in FY22 and Rs 1.97 trillion committed to manufacturing sector for the next five years.  After a tumultuous year, it was important to pump in budget for job creation and strengthening the job-creating sectors and the government has tried to achieve that. The real estate sector is the largest employer and it was hoping for some direct measures, but the Budget turned out to be disappointing. However, the sector will grow with the economy and we are looking for some positive announcements in the coming months.

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE UPDATES: Lokendra Ranawat, Founder & CEO, WoodenStreet:  

"The budget was awaited with a lot of expectations and of that most have been met. Infrastructure & healthcare were the main spotlights of budget 2021 and a large investment has been allocated for the expansion of the road network. Also, just like it was predicted, Startups were given importance in this budget as well. The tax-exempt on the revenue, as well as investments, have been increased by one more year which will be beneficial for the startup growth in the country. On the other hand, the investment in MSMEs and the moratorium on loans of up to 2Cr will also play a crucial role in for the Indian corporates. Privatization of several government-related sectors such as ports will also add to the economic growth and employment generation."

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE UPDATES: Kushagr Ansal,Director, Ansal Housing Limited and President, CREDAI - Haryana- 
The Union Budget 2021-22 will be laying down the roadmap for growth and heightened recovery in the real estate. The extended support given to infrastructure will generate a higher degree of job opportunities for Tier II cities, leading to growth in population and higher demand for residential as well as commercial projects.As expected, the affordable housing has emerged as important segment of the realty industry and FM has duly addressed the biggest concern of the developers and buyers of such projects. Even the rental housing design proposed by the government will solve the problem of residences for migrant workers to a great extent.

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE UPDATES: Prateek Mittal, Executive Director, Sushma Group

The extended support given to infrastructure will generate a higher degree of job opportunities for Tier II cities, leading to growth in population and higher demand for residential and commercial real estate. The support extended to migrant workers, in form of a portal for migrant workers building & construction work has been a positive move in ensuring their safety

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE UPDATES: Uddhav Poddar, MD, Bhumika Group

"The FM has proposed easing of InvITs/REITs, which will help in getting new REITs and attracting fresh investments in the real estate sector.
The creation of a development financial institution is another good announcement as this sector has been suffering due to paucity of patient capital.
It is heartening to see Governments focus towards “housing for all” and accordingly the government has made announcements regarding affordable housing such as to extend eligibility of erstwhile tax sop on home loan up to FY22 and offer tax exemption for notified affordable rental housing projects. We too plan on entering the affordable housing sector this year.
Lastly the creation of bad assets bank / ARC along with recapitalisation of banks are both much needed moves which will help sort out the banking woes to a great extent."

 

 

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE UPDATES: Ravi Singhal, Vice Chairman, GCL Securities Limited:

"Hon'ble Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sithraman by announcing that Modi government will introduce a bill for the development of financial institution has shown a clear path for the growth on financial infrastructure in the Atmanirbhar Bharat. Further, Modi government's announcement of a sharp increase in Capital Expenditure and thus providing Rs 5.54 lakh crores will develop momentum for financial infrastructure domain. Further, the announcement of the development of investor charter should also be welcome as it will protect the hard-earned money of a number of investors."

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE UPDATES: Aditya Chamaria, Managing Director, Damodar Ropeways & Infra Limited
Budget 2021 has been labelled as the budget for 'Aatmanirbhar Bharat'. This budget has been unique in terms of highest ever allocation of NHAI - of Rs 1,18,101 crores. Government aims to complete 11,000km of national highway infrastructure this year. This extended support to boost infrastructure is going to be indirectly boosting the tourism sector with improved connectivity, it would also lead to increased job opportunities in the infrastructure sector leading to improvement in employment conditions for the laborers. Reforms such as GST to get reduced were expected from government to promote eco-friendly mode of travel and transportation such as ropeways

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE UPDATES: Vikas Garg, Deputy Managing Director, MRG World

“Government’s focus  and commitment for the real estate industry can clearly be gauged for the announcement made by the Finance Minister Niramala Sitharaman today. The affordable housing has emerged as important segment of the realty industry and FM has rightly address the biggest concern of the developers and buyers of such projects. Even the rental housing design of the government will solve the problem of residences for migrant workers to a great extent. The push to infrastructure will also benefit the real estate industry indirectly as better infrastructure in the country will help in real estate projects spreading out of compact city limits. A little bit of clarity on Input Tax Credit would have made the matters even better for the industry. All in all, it’s a good budget for the real estate industry.

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE UPDATES: Manoj Gaur, CMD, Gaurs Group

The announcements regarding the development of highways, electrification, migrant workers, will strengthen the economy and start the recovery process. The focus on infrastructure and job creation will indirectly benefit the real estate sector. As expected, Affordable Housing was once again the focus as the Government is moving towards 'Housing for all'. The relaxations such as tax holiday for one more year will go a long way in helping the segment prosper. Elimination of double tax for NRIs on foreign retirement funds will encourage NRIs to invest in real estate assets. Though the number of announcements regarding the real estate sector was few, the sector is all set to gain from the measures taken to strengthen the economy through job creation and asset management. The players in affordable housing segment will get encouragement from tax holiday being extended for one more year; we would see more developers entering the segment in the coming year. The buyers also got benefit when the government extended Rs 1.5 loans to purchase affordable house by one year. But, the long standing demand of giving industry status to the sector has again been ignored.

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE UPDATES: Kapil Kapur, Director-Sales, Strategy & Business Development, Bullmen Realty
“The Budget announcement made by the Finance Minister today addresses an important problem in the real estate industry today, i.e. housing for the migrant workers. The decision to provide exemption from tax to the notified affordable rental housing projects will maximize the migrant workers to get a home of their choice in a big city at lower payment. However, the government did not address the long pending demand of the industry to expand the definition of affordable house. The present limit of Rs 45 lakhs as the price of a house to be called affordable is too small and must have been raised to Rs 75 lakhs

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE UPDATES:Nagaraju Routhu, CEO, Hero Realty

The budget comes as a relief for the reeling economy post pandemic brought a one of kind slowdown. FM has tried to extend support to sectors that raises demand and improves consumer sentiment with the much-needed stimulus. The strong push given to infrastructure with promises of  delivering highway infra work of around 8,500-km of highways by March 2022 will be directly or indirectly benefiting the real estate sector. We were hoping this budget would address issues of single window clearance and industry status to the sector, but that has been left untouched. We are looking forward that government will direct attention towards these demands, which are unanimously  being asked by the real estate community. An additional support by government with proposed easing of InvITs/REITs, will be helpful in getting new REITs and attracting fresh investments in the real estate sector.

 
Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE UPDATES: Madhusudhan HK, President, India and South Asia at Alma Medical India

 "As expected the Finance Minister has kept the focus of the budget on economic revival and healthcare. The significant increase in budget outlay for healthcare has been particularly promising at a time when the COVID 19 pandemic has severely affected healthcare goals. With COVID 19 consuming the entire focus of the healthcare sector, a series of important health goals such as NCD prevention, disease screening, malnutrition control and even regular immunization programmes had taken a backseat last year. While more than doubling the budget allocation for healthcare this year, the Finance Minister has committed to improve primary, secondary and tertiary healthcare services. The increased expenditure has also been committed to strengthen critical care in the country and on supporting the massive vaccine roll out.

A sharp increase in capital expenditure is another notable aspect of the budget as it promises to infuse significant spending in building infrastructure projects and public transport systems that will help generate much-needed economic activity and employment in an economy struggling with a recessionary phase.

While the focus on easing tax compliance and improving dispute resolution mechanisms is welcome, we had hoped to see a greater rationalization of GST and its compliance structure."

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE UPDATES: Vishal Bali, Executive Chairman, Asia Healthcare Holding

“Healthy India is core to India’s economic growth reflects in the 137% increase in outlay for health at Rs 2,23,846 crore in budget 2021. The focus on healthcare with 'Atmanirbhar Swasth Bharat Yojana' with an outlay of Rs 64,180 crore over 6 years shows that healthcare capacity building is now a key priority for the Government. The Rs. 35,000 crore earmarked for COVID 19 vaccination drive will create the safety net for the country. The overall capital expenditure increase of 26% should drive infrastructure acceleration, the much needed GDP growth driver. Insurance sector which is an important pillar for any country should see an exponential growth with enhancement of FDI limit to 74% from 49%. Overall a forward looking budget to drive the 11% GDP growth for India in FY22 as pegged in the Economic survey 2020”

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE UPDATES: Vikram Thaploo, CEO, Apollo Telehealth

"The Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman announced an allocation of INR 64,180 crore over the next 6 years for the healthcare sector in the 2021 Union Budget. The budget allocated is in addition to the National Health Mission which is already in effect. One of the key initiatives proposed in this year’s budget is the addition of 17,000 rural and 11,000 urban health and wellness centres which is supportive move for better patient care and will also pave way for public-private partnerships. Also, the government has proposed to set up integrated public health labs in each district with 3,382 block public health units across 11 states. Another welcoming move is the outlay of INR 1.41 crore for the Swach Bharat 2.0 mission which will help improve sanitisation and transform the lives of millions. Considering the government’s effort to curb the pandemic of COVID-19, it has also planned to set aside INR 35,000 Crore for Covid-19 Vaccine in FY22. Though, it must be admitted that the government has re-shifted its focus on healthcare in this budget, but considering the rapid integration of digital technology into healthcare, no major developments around digital healthcare or telemedicine was announced."

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE UPDATES: Avneet Singh Marwah, Director and CEO, Super Plastronics Pvt Ltd, a Kodak brand Licensee

“Government intends to boost local manufacturing through its announcements in various PLI scheme in next five years. As part of consumer electronics, televisions should be considered to be included into the scheme. Also a dedicated Freight Corridor will be a game changer for supply chain of manufacturing. By spending on infrastructure, India will be competitive at global stage. 
Like metals, Govt should consider taking back customs duty on panels as there is increase of prices by 300% on the raw materials.”

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE UPDATES: Dr. Akhil Shahani, Managing Director, Thadomal Shahani Centre for Management, Shahani Group and Ask.Careers

"The budget had some welcome initiatives, like collaboration with UAE & Japan, adding more rural schools, and strengthening the national apprenticeship programme. However, I believe that a lot more could have been done to build India's education sector as per the goals set out by National Education Policy (NEP 2020). Increased allocation of funds up to 6% of GDP (as recommended by expert committees), opening the sector to private for-profit investors and allowing foreign universities to setup campuses in India, were great opportunities which were missed in this budget."

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE UPDATES:  Abhishek Kumar, Regional Director, Oncam

One of the key focus area in annual union Budget is on infrastructure. The decision to boost transport sector  by allocating increased budgets for National Highways and Metros shall create opportunities for overview and incidence detection solutions. Oncam with its unique position in the market as the best overview surveillance solution is strategically placed to further increase its market share in roadways safety security solutions. The union budget is intelligently thought of and shall propel India as the fastest growing economy of the world.

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE UPDATES: Rakesh Deshmukh, Co Founder and CEO, Indus OS

Quote - The announcement of the National Language Translation Mission is a much needed effort by the government to reach our citizens in the language they understand. At Indus App Bazaar, the usage of apps in Indian languages on our platform has increased 2.2 times last year. We believe that with an enhanced app store ecosystem we will be able to break linguistic barriers and adding more value to the next half a billion Indian customers. Moreover, for Atma Nirbhar Bharat to be successful, the focus should be on technology innovation as a whole. We appreciate the government’s focus on innovation and R&D in the budget 2021.

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE UPDATES: Mike Chen, General Manager, TCL India

We do welcome the recent PLI scheme of the government. However, we need to ease up the duty imposed on raw materials keeping in mind the make in India thought. We should also be getting added incentives so that transformative measures can be taken. The industry contributes 25% of the country's GDP.

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE UPDATES: Abhishek Kumar, Regional Director, Onvu Learning

The annual budget brings in good news for Smart Class solutions. The Union budget has a major thrust on the education sector. The decision to strengthen 15,000 government schools provides a major avenue for Smart Class teacher-training solutions such as Onvu Learning. The decision to set up more than 100 Sainik and Eklavya schools with a 50-100% increased budget further opens up this sector for video-enabled teacher’s self-training solutions.

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE UPDATES: Rushi Shenghani, CEO & Founder, Earth Energy EV

"We wholeheartedly welcome the progressive budget by the government this year. The focus on the Atma Nirbhar package will lead to sustained recovery for indigenous brands. We are pleased to know that after keeping Scrappage policy unclear for so long, our Govt is placing voluntary scrapping policy ahead this year- the industry is going to get a major boost and create demand for energy efficient vehicles. With the continued Govt support Indian OEMs and manufacturers will grow India self reliant towards Green mobility."

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE UPDATES: Hakim Lakdawala, Group Promoter, Goodwill Developers

The Union Budget on 2021-2022 comes with a promising outlook after the challenging times faced due to the pandemic and its resultant lockdown. The major push to the already proposed National Infrastructure Pipeline will provide stimulus to the stalled projects and will thereby enhance development for its allied segments like housing and construction. Moreover, the tax holiday for affordable housing and rental housing projects, along with an additional deduction of Rs 1.5 lakh available for loans till 31st March 2022 will incentivize possible end consumers and potentially increase sales volume and velocity, thereby having a far-reaching positive impact on the real estate sector

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE UPDATES: Santosh Janakiram, Partner & Head-Projects, Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas

The announcement of Indians very own DFI to lend 5 lakhs crores in the next 3 years and 20k crores is a game changer. It’s is heartening to note that the FM has announced that FPIs will be permitted to invest debt in REITs and Invits; and more importantly that relevant legislations will be amended to give effect to this. This is a very important step to enable monetisation and give fillip to creating more Invits and REITs.” 

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE UPDATES: Abhilash Pillai, Partner Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas: 

"Proposal to complete Eastern and Western Freight corridors by June 2022 will scale up warehouse business. Hope the govt will bring up a single window clearance for setting up more warehouses, which currently takes more than 3 months to have all approvals in place.

Expansion of Phase 2 metro in 5 cities will witness mixed use development around these metro corridors. This will also help SmartCity missions and create more job opportunities."

Budget 2021 Reactions LIVE UPDATES: Shagoofa Rashid Khan, Partner and Head - Project, Investment and Advisory Head - Funds, Investment and Advisory, Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas

"A new development financial institution announced to target debt portfolio of 5 lakh crore. Will this be new wine in old bottle or will this be a progression on the learnings of past development finance institutions and IDF experimentation. 

Long awaited ask of aligning SEBI FPI regulations with Sebi InvIt and Reits regulations finally announced. Debt capital to now flow easily from FPIs including ESR focussed funds and financial institutions.

 Announcements thus far to boost investment in development real estate sector including social infrastructure like sports stadiums as well as warehousing and other infrastructure to support Pillar 1 initiatives

Assets identified for NHAI and PGCIL InvITs pipeline - this will make these Invits very attractive and thus deepen the InvITs market."