Budget 2017 is ‘business as usual’

By Nandita Singh

BENGALURU: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley refrained from making a dash for a populist ‘make or break’ budget as the Narendra Modi-led  government  in India reaches mid point of its five year term.

Budget 2017 emphasized ‘business as usual’ displaying commendable restraint in the face of 690 seats across 5 states of UP, Goa, Punjab, Uttrakhand & Manipur at stake, as elections are due in these states and will commence in the coming week.

“It is notable that the government maintained fiscal discipline and resisted the urge to come up with a populist budget given the upcoming elections in a number of states, says Partha Iyengar, VP and Gartner Fellow, India for the Indian IT Sector.

"This will allow commercial activity to expand to the rural segment in a much more efficient manner, if the aim of achieving the broadband connectivity targets by 2018 is actually met,” says Iyengar. Budget 2017  will enable and deliver e-governance to 150,000 Indian villages by March 31, 2018.  Laying of about 155,000 km of high speed optic fibre is already through, Jaitley reported in his Budget speech in the Parliament today.

The continued focus on moving India towards a more transparent and digital economy is encouraging, in order to really capitalize on the long term gains of the painful demonetization exercise. The move to curb the black economy also bodes well, for accelerated GDP growth as more of the ‘shadow economy’ becomes visible and integrated into the overall economic activity.

It is also a sign that the IT industry has become quite mature and does not need sops to continue its growth trend (other factors like Trump notwithstanding), there were no overt steps taken – and none expected – for the industry, and there is no hue and cry about it either.

Transform, Energize & Clean India, the TEC agenda of Budget 2017.  Here is who is saying what on India's Budget 2017:

Budget brings Digital India vision closer to reality: Rajiv Srivastava, HP India

BharatNet Rs 10,000 crore budget allocation is a major step: Anand Agarwal, Sterlite Technologies

Budget gives broadband connectivity a boost: Jay Chen, Huawei India

Budget is a push for Digital Economy: Anant Maheshwari, Microsoft India

MVNOs will also benefit from this Budget: GV Kumar, XIUS

It is a sensible budget with clear milestones: Anil Valluri, NetApp India & SAARC

Budget 2017 gave no clarification on service tax for spectrum purchase: Rajan S Mathews, COAI

2% increase in duty on PCBs will have no impact on end consumers: Narendra Bansal, Intex Technologies

Budget will propel manufacturing capacity creation: K Krishna Moorthy, IESA

Effective implementation of Budget will be key: Rajesh Agarwal, Micromax

Budget gives ‘Make in India’ a boost: Akshay Dhoot, Videocon

Budget gives an impetus to entrepreneurial skills: M N Vidyashankar, IESA

Budget will provide a push to 'make in India': Arvind Vohra, Gionee India

Budget 2017 digital payments focus is transformative: Kumar Karpe, TechProcess Payment Services

For more reactions you can search Budget on Voice&Data

Related: Budget 2017: What does it mean for startups?

Full text of Finance Minister Arun Jaitley's Budget Speech here.

Watch Budget 2017 Speech Video here