Budget 2020 hits the right chord on data and technology: Is India Inc ready for the quantum leap?


Budget 2020 hits the right chord on data and technology: Is India Inc ready for the quantum leap?

By Keshav Murugesh


Budget 2020 has stood out for its special focus on technology, talent and infrastructure. Specific wants of India Inc and businesses around incentivising innovation, skilling, entrepreneurship and ease of doing business have been directly addressed. The boost given to digital and emerging technologies as the pivot for adisruptive new economy is quite heartening.

Israel, for instance, provides a big collaborative opportunity for India to adopt that country’s very successful practices as an incubator and catalyst for driving innovation through deep technologies. Companies such as Or Cam, which provides eyesight to some 350 million visually challenged people, and Intel-subsidiary Mobileye, which provides autonomous vehicle and safety technology to international brands, are great examples of tech-driven Israeli businesses. GoI’s commitment to, and investments in, new-age technologies along a path similar to Israel should boost such opportunities.

The plan to allocate more than Rs 8,000 crore over five years in a national quantum technology programme and its applications is a big shot in the arm for our technology providers who have invested in R&D efforts in this field. Similarly, the thrust on embedding artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), Internet of Things (IoT), drone technology, data analytics, robotics and other emerging technologies into the fabric of public services opens up a huge market for innovative services and practices.

The policy to build data centre parks across the country could position India as a global force in data research and analytics. Additionally, the country could also serve as the backbone for data-driven and digital governance. This could be in digital connectivity (Rs 6,000 crore for fibre-tohome connectivity through Bharat-Net), agriculture, health and preventive care, public procurement, smart city expansion (five new smart cities), geotagging solutions for warehousing for food sustainability, smart metering (Rs 22,000 crore for the power sector for its implementation), or digital platforms for internet protocol (IP) creation.

Setting up a digital platform to facilitate seamless application and capture of intellectual property rights (IPR) is welcome, especially the decision to establish a centre within one of the institutes of excellence that would work on the complexity and innovations in IP.

Equally encouraging is the earmarking of Rs 99,300 crore for the education sector, with Rs 3,000 crore for skill development in FY2021. This will provide a fillip for India to be positioned as a hub for global talent, supporting the skilling of its IT workforce, especially in the light of World Economic Forum (WEF) estimates of the demand-supply talent gap in AI and big-data analytics growing to 1,40,000 over the next three years.

The proposed measures to enhance setting up, and ease of doing business, for startups — allocation for a seed fund to support early-stage startups, the setting up of investment clearance and advisory cell for entrepreneurs, etc — is good news. The easing of working capital credit to MSMEs will also facilitate this sector. The Ease of Doing Business (EoDB) metric is a very important parameter that businesses weigh on while making investment decisions.

The budget has made a move towards facilitating this end. The simplification of, and reduction in, corporate tax will also go a long way in building India’s reputation as a businessfriendly nation to attract investment and assuring investors of a conducive environment for a long-term commitment. It is now up to each business leader to leverage this momentum and build avibrant and caring India.

The writer is chairman, National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom)




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