The moot question in everyone’s minds today is – has the economist turned India’s first full-time Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman surpassed her last two budgets in a row?
Here’s what the leading experts across sectors have to say:
Rajesh Bhatia, Global & Group CFO, UFlex
“This is a balanced Budget with focus on infrastructure development, privatization and disinvestment (huge divestment target of INR 1.75 lac crore), a major push in Central Government capex and credit expansion. The move from Government to dedicate over INR 1.4 lac crore over the next five years towards ‘Urban Swachh Bharat Mission 2.0’ shows their resolve to manage the challenges of plastic waste in the country, with a firm approach.
Our joint project with CIPET for Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) Sorting and Segregation in Bangalore and Varanasi to separate the recoverable from the garbage and recycle the plastic waste constituents is a technology that complements the efforts of our government to manage plastic waste. As pioneers in creating plastic waste management solutions, along with manufacturing of the packaging for essentials, we would be glad to extend further support to the government in dealing with waste management and making India a cleaner country.”
Vishal Bhatia, Chief Financial Officer, True Balance
“The introduction of the new Development Financial Institution will help in creating opportunity and opening of doors for lending businesses in India. A boost to the lending sector will lead to more circulation of money, leading to more purchasing power, providing the much-awaited boost for the economy, in the post-COVID circumstances. It is a welcome move to promote a digital mode of payments, with an allocation of INR1500/- crores. The digital payments infrastructure will see an upliftment in adoption as well as utilisation by all sectors of society, leading to a stronger digital economy.”
Jai Decosta, CEO, K12 Techno Services Pvt. Ltd.
“As private players in the K12 education sector, we had one of the toughest years. We were relying heavily on the budget announcement in terms of rebates through tax concession or relaxation in terms of the GST. However, there was no such mention with regards to any of these. It has therefore put us in a difficult place, financially, forcing us to rely heavily on the fees paid by the parents. The government needs to take notice of private players too, and this budget has largely ignored us.”
