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Union Budget 2023: Industry reacts

Following the budget address, notable industry leaders associated with the telecom sector presented their views on the Budget.

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Ayushi Singh
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Following the budget address for 2023 by finance minister, Nirmala Sitharaman in the parliament today, the notable industry leaders associated with the telecom sector presented their views on the Budget.

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Prativa Mohapatra, Vice President and Managing Director, Adobe India

The Union Budget 2023's emphasis on digitization further solidifies India's position as a global technology hub. According to the government of India's goal of ‘AatmNirbhar Bharat’ in the ‘Amrit Kaal’, the Indian technology sector continues to be extremely crucial, and is prepared to reach new heights and add $1 trillion to the national economy. The establishment of AI excellence centers will lead to increasing adoption of cutting-edge technologies like Web 3.0, generative AI, and the metaverse, and will lead to driving the next phase of digital transformation. By making AI work for India and prioritizing digital and creative skills across all sectors, we can unlock even greater potential for growth.

To fully realize the benefits of this technological revolution, it is important to continue to advance the story of Digital India with a focus on accessibility.  To that end, we are committed to support the government’s agenda in transitioning from physical content to digital libraries pan-India to build a robust digital education ecosystem and encourage creation of digital content. As a leader in digital innovation, we at Adobe recognize the critical role that technology has played in propelling India's growth and economic development and the plans announced today will further help establish India as a global technological hub. We are excited to put our best foot forward to contribute with our bit to the overall development on the nation.”

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Arvind Bali, CEO, Telecom Sector Skill Council

“The government's focus on the skill development of India's potential youth talent through initiatives like NEP, PMKVY 4.0 for skilling in niche new-age technologies like 5G, AI, 3D printing, drones, coding, mechatronics, robotics, and IoT draws further impetus to the ongoing efforts. Blue and grey-collar job demand in India grew by up to four-fold in 2022. Annual demand in telecommunications and 5G have increased by 33.7 per cent in September 2022. There was a demand for 1.3 million workers in FY22-23 which is growing each year and. New use-cases including cloud computing, robots, and the Internet of Things (IoT) are also seeing a sharp rise in hiring. We believe the initiatives will be beneficial to close country's growing demand supply gap of technical talent workforce. With the government's push to establish 30 Skill India international centres, 100 premier labs for developing applications to use 5G services, and centres of excellence for AI, India has the potential to deliver talent not only across domestic markets but also to the international market. The initiative like the Eklavya Model Residential Schools (EMRS) is also a progressive move by the government to uplift the tribal population and empower the students to take up new job opportunities.”

Pramod Gummaraj, CEO of Aprecomm

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“This budget’s focus on boosting use of artificial intelligence through centers of excellence and the initiative towards setting up 100 labs for app development using 5g services are indeed a great move and a great boost to the respective sectors. In fact 'Make AI for India' and 'Make AI work for India' are much needed initiatives in present times when artificial intelligence is spreading its arms wide across all the sectors. Had its scope been extended to the telecom sector along with the other three sectors the initiative would have been more fruitful.While there are initiatives towards promoting Artificial Intelligence and 5G through dedicated budgetary allocations, the current budget has not taken into account the necessity of supporting telecom tech. With telecom players in India and abroad increasingly preferring to integrate various new age technologies developed by Indian players to ease their business in the current market scenario, the current budget could have given the much expected budgetary allocation to boost telecom tech players in the country. Budgetary allocations and policy support would have enabled India to stand atop of the world with Indian telecom tech players leading global markets.”

Manoranjan Mohapatra, CEO, Comviva

“With the ongoing 5G rollouts in India, the government's decision to establish 100 5G application Labs is a timely move to spur innovation in developing the 5G ecosystem and India relevant use cases. There is a great opportunity to combine 5G and AI to improve network speed, responsiveness, and efficiencies. The special emphasis on establishing AI centres of excellence shall help produce specialized talent to enable India preserve its global advantage and leadership. These are extremely positive initiatives and shall bring technological advancements to the country as AI and 5G are the two most critical elements to enable futuristic innovations and developed related 5G ecosystem.”

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Sachin Alug, CEO, NLB Services

India's Union Budget 2023 is growth-oriented with a key focus on areas like infrastructure, skill development, employment generation, manufacturing, and relief to taxpayers. The new policies reflect an upbeat attitude towards ease of doing business and scrapping of 39,000 compliances will help ensure enhanced international interest and investment. 

The mission of Amrit kaal of developing a technology-driven and knowledge based economy will further strengthen India's position globally.  It is heartening to see the focus on 5G and Industry 4.0. It is indeed India's budget for the dream of Digital India.  

The focus on capital expenditure and ease in personal income tax makes it a  budget for Indians and  India Inc. 

Skill development has turned out to be a key facet of this budget as it promises training and upskilling initiatives in the areas of coding, AI, robotics, mechatronics IoT, 3D printing drones and other soft skills. These steps will be an impetus to push the country's youth toward emerging opportunities in 5G and Industry 4.0.  5G services will also be leveraged to develop applications across a hundred labs to explore new business and employment avenues.

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