Strengthening the collective vision for an Inclusive Digital India, the Interim Budget 2024 has set the tone for a technology-oriented and knowledge-driven nation by 2047. The government’s sharp focus on DeepTech, technology-enabled development to benefit the last mile, Innovation R&D and transformational reforms to skill, reskill and upskill India’s youth reflects the country’s commitment towards inclusive and sustained development for all.
Echoing the vision for India’s techade the budget encouraged the use of emerging technologies benefiting and readying India. DeepTech today holds the potential to generate substantial economic value across various emerging and legacy sectors. India today has a large resource of DeepTech start-ups working across the entire range of emerging technologies, driving innovation and inclusive development. Therefore, it is welcoming to see the government’s focus on promoting Deep Technologies in critical sectors such as Defence.
Access to quality skilled talent has been India’s biggest competitive advantage globally. India today has the highest STEM enrolment of girls globally at 43%. The Interim budget 2024 introduced several key measures ranging from women entrepreneurship and increasing women’s participation in the workforce. We are also glad to see the government focused on digital skilling to encourage continual skilling avenues for the country’s youth. This further strengthens the tech industry’s commitment to skill development at scale in this AI age. With a focus on innovation as the foundation for development, the allotment of INR 1 Lakh Crore corpus with 50-year interest-free loans will provide long-term financing at low or nil interest rates for the private sector to not just scale R&D in sunrise sectors but also boost employment and economic prosperity for the country.
The budget’s continued focus on a green budget that prioritizes sustainable development through Green Growth, has sent a very strong signal of India’s commitment towards achieving net zero goals and energy transition. Expansion & strengthening the EV infrastructure by supported manufacturing and charging infrastructure will vastly strengthen this commitment further.
Overall, we believe this was a healthy interim budget with a focus on growth driving growth. As is usually the convention in interim budgets, there are no changes expected in the taxation regime.
Nasscom will continue to work with the government to enable ease of doing business and promote innovation for the larger technology ecosystem including start-ups, to augment the India growth story in this Techade.
