Pooja Mahabadi, Pune
The honourable Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced the Union Budget on the 23rd of July 2024, the budget included many industrial developments, and the technology sector also found itself being in the books. The budget mainly included measures aimed at bolstering and pushing the Technology industry in India. There have been noteworthy announcements regarding the industry during the budget presentation. One of them includes the reduction of customs duty on mobile phones and accessories that correlate i.e. Basic Customs Duty (BCD) has been reduced by 15 %.
The Finance Minister announced the establishment of a 1000-crore venture into the technology industry aiming to propel the space technology sector in India; the Space economy is a range of activities or resources that are used by humans to research and explore, understand, and utilise space. The space Economy is growing briskly in India which has gained momentum since Chandrayan- 3 and Aditya L-1 missions, the Indian Space Economy to grow up to $44 billion by 2033.
Puneet Chandok, the President of Microsoft, India, and South Asia, concerning the Union budget 2024 Chandok spoke about leveraging the AI-ready workforce along with a stable economy. He also spoke about how technological innovation and digitization have surely set the Indian economy on a fast-track development regime. Chandok further also highlighted that India’s AI skill transcendence into the economy will make the talent concentration rates unmatched compared to any other technology diffusion.
Arundhati Bhattacharya, the chairperson, and CEO of Salesforce India, appreciated the recent updates in the budget for having a keen focus on women, the young demography, and employment. She said after closely analysing the Finance Minister’s Budget speech she has realised that the nation is advancing in the right direction providing the right fuel.
Varun Gupta, the co-founder of BOULT said that the budget was a big win for the technological sector expressing his confidence in investments, stimulating innovations to drive innovation and growth. He also applauded the government for the removal of the angel tax which is a good step forward in the early stages of startups and an indication of the government’s support for small-time startups.
Most of the Tech-Giants have expressed their positive feedback on the Budget saying that the budget will close the gap between technology and India.