Union Budget 2023 Expectations - Hyderabad Inc

 Budget Expectations from Hyderabad Inc:

Mr. Gusti Noria, President, The Hyderabad Public School Society

 

“The allocation towards the education sector in the Union Budget is almost double compared to the previous year and we consider it as a step that is both welcome and much overdue. It is our opinion that there must be more emphasis on developing k-12 students holistically, in a manner that facilitates them to emerge as full-fledged adults. We must prioritize educating students and even, teachers about digital literacy and make it one of the main focus of this year’s education budget. There is significant development in emerging technologies with each passing year and there has never been a better time to invest and evaluate about the impact it would have on growing children.

The recent chatter around ChatGPT has raised concerns about ethics, cheating and plagiarism. Today’s kids are ‘digital natives’ and we need to invest in how they access, process, and promulgate information they gain from digital spaces in a manner that is healthy and non-obstructive to their overall well-being.

While tax exemption of emerging EdTechs is a welcome move, academic partnerships with EdTech companies should not just be limited to universities. Schools in the K-12 sector should also get adequate funding and infrastructure to partner with emerging EdTech companies to train students and staff on digital literacy, sustainability, health and nutrition in an effort to truly make them ‘future-ready.’ Another effective step to enhance global learning could be to encourage exchange programmes for both staff and students”.

Mr. Siddharth Arora, COO, Paradise Food Court Pvt Limited.  

“The F&B and Hospitality Sectors are undeniably some of the worst hit industries during COVID. However, the industry also recorded a phenomenal bounce back as a leading contributor in the service industry. A positively inclined budget in favor of offering input tax credit to the restaurants, would be an impetus for the industry post-pandemic. Against the backdrop of the economy’s spiraling inflation, this move will ensure that we are posed to manage our PL and avoid forcing the costs onto the consumers.”

Mr. Gautam Nimmagadda, Founder & CEO, Quixy

“The past union budget focused copiously on amplifying the digital ecosystem in the country. But to explore a comprehensive digital India, the private and government sectors must be incentivized to adopt indigenous digital solutions developed particularly in the MSME sector. Currently, startups can avail of a tax holiday for 3 years since incorporation. However, the ideal exemption should be 10 years, in view of the high cost of solution development. As positive employment drivers, startups also require government intervention in the expensive affair of hiring and retaining the right talent to drive growth.

Furthermore, despite having several means of financial backing like PMRY, Credit Guarantee Fund for MSMEs, Start-up India, etc., MSMEs face tremendous challenges in gaining the right window of financial support. This discourages them from becoming an intrinsic part of the Digital India program. Hence, to lead the startups onwards and upwards, a single-window process to enable the right financial support from government would be incentivizing for MSMEs. This will catalyze and leverage the full inherent potential of the Indian technology industry to become champions of digitization”.