Budget 2020: What different industries are expecting from Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman

Nakul Kumar, Co-Founder & COO, Cashify

"While the Indian economy has hit a rough patch, the refurbished phone sector in India has been on an all-time high last year. As a part of the startup ecosystem and the refurbished industry, we expect the Union Budget 2020 to give a further boost to the sector by strengthening the startup quality norms, so that good quality and authentic players are available in the market. The recommerce trend is breaking all barriers of selling smartphones and influencing pre-owned smartphone users to sell their smartphones without taking hassles of negotiations and prices. Thus the budget should focus on promoting a more safe and secure ecosystem and at the same time democratize technology for an amplified and unified reach." - Nakul Kumar, Co-Founder & COO, Cashify said. Photo: Reuters

Shobhit Bhatnagar, CEO & Co-Founder, Gradeup

"Our Education sector plays an important role in empowering our youth. The EdTech industry is a key component of our education sector. Therefore, the government should offer tax benefits to EdTech startups in the form of exemptions. The issue of angel tax has still not been properly resolved. As a result investors are reluctant to invest heavily in promising startups because if they do decide to invest heavily then they end up paying a significant tax on it. Therefore, investors require clarity on this front so they can start to invest freely," Shobhit Bhatnagar, CEO & Co-Founder, Gradeup said. Photo: Reuters

 

Ankur Choudhary, Co-Founder & CIO, Goalwise.com

“Given the state of the economy, there are a lot of expectations from the budget. The government should do more to incentivize investments in startups especially in the fin-tech sector in order to expedite financial inclusion. A common KYC for banks, investments, and insurance will go a long way in accelerating that goal.Regulations need to provide stability and clarity and not change abruptly without due consultations. On the personal finance front, the overhaul of income tax slabs is long due. Also, we are hoping that the income tax deduction limit under section 80C gets raised to 2 lakhs," Ankur Choudhary, Co-Founder & CIO, Goalwise.com  said. Photo: Reuters

Siddhartha Gupta, CEO of Mercer|Mettl

"As we are chasing to be India’s third-largest economy soon with a GDP of $8.4 by the end of this decade, India has to leverage the demographic dividend that it’s currently enjoying. Through this budget, I hope to see more money being pumped into reskilling and skilling in emerging technologies that could define the path for future growth potential. For our industry as well as in general, our budget expectations lay in more investment  in laying foundation and infrastructure for skill development through education that is practical and provides hands-on experience in technology," Siddhartha Gupta, CEO of Mercer|Mettl said. Photo: Reuters

 

Harshvardhan Lunia, Co-founder, and CEO, Lendingkart

"The last Union Budget saw sustained push towards a digital-first economy, which is remarkable. Over the last year, the Government has introduced a series of measures including interest rate cuts to revive GDP growth, spur investments as well as impetus to MSME financing  through NBFCs. With digital and mobile payments on the rise, RBI efforts by forming a committee to deepen digital payments in the country has been encouraging. Realising the vast potential of the NBFCs sector in its contribution towards economic growth and improved access to banking products for the unbanked, the Government has initiated multiple steps to support this sector, however real implementation and intended effectiveness on-ground is yet to see concrete success. In the upcoming budget, we look forward to progressive policies which enhance financial inclusion through geographic reach, promote increased use of technology  as well as efforts to rejig NBFC funding through PSU bank participation in fund raising plans of small and mid-sized NBFCs. The fintech industry also remains hopeful for strategic measures from Ministry of Finance and Reserve Bank to monitor actual performance of announced measures already taken by Government," Harshvardhan Lunia, Co-Founder & CEO at Lendingkart.

Karmesh Gupta, Co-founder, WiJungle

"Cyber Security being one of the crucial elements of digital empowerment, attention on both industry and public is need of the hour. From an Industry perspective, the government should focus on establishing specialized Cyber Security Incubation Centers and R&D Labs to bring up more product companies and make India a global center of innovation. Further, we look forward to incentivization/aide for startups in standard testing certifications & also open basic public testing labs accessible to startups on the subscription model. This would help domestic companies to compete conclusively against foreign players. For citizen well-being, govt. must launch mass cyber education & awareness drive through web programs, evolving existing offline IT certification programs, introducing it as a subject in the school curriculum. etc. for two major purposes,  develop workforce & reduce the current shortage and substantially bring down cyber theft and losses," Karmesh Gupta, Co-founder, WiJungle said.Photo: Reuters