Union Budget 2023-24 Brought Cheers For India Inc

FM Nirmala Sitharaman tabled the Union Budget for upcoming fiscal in parliament on the 1^st of February. The slew of measures in the budget included massive push to Infrastructure spending, relief to MSMEs, boost to startups and technology sectors along with ease of doing business among others. The budget certainly brought cheers for India Inc and here is how Industry leaders reacted to Union Budget 2023-24.

"Budget 2023 was a crucial one, and by repeatedly addressing the entrepreneurial ecosystem of the country, the finance minister has shown hope in the industry. As for the retail sector, the easing of compliances is a commendable step toward empowering businesses. Now, companies can focus on growth and their people, thus immensely impacting the ease of doing business. With Vinod Cookware gearing up for expansion, this will prove to be an advantage.

Speaking from the consumer's perspective, the income tax slab change is a relief for the middle class of the nation. It will not just enable them to increase their savings, but with an increased disposable income in hand, we will also witness a spur in consumer demand. Here's hoping for a successful financial year for all!", said Sunil Agarwal, Director, Vinod Cookware.

"With their intention of reducing compliance and decriminalization of legal provisions, the budget has taken positive steps towards encouraging development in the startup and MSME ecosystem. The Rs 9,000 crore corpus set to take action through the revamped schemes for MSMEs is an important benefit to come out of the 2023 union budget. Further, the cost of credit reduced by nearly 1% will decrease start-ups' initial funding fixed cost, encouraging them to source funds from the government or banks.

Overall, as middle-class families will enjoy the tax slab going up to 7 LPA, I believe with more money left in their bank accounts, consumers will be motivated to spend more on leveling up their lifestyle as well. Lifestyle brand consumption, especially, I think will see a great hike. With certain measures easing the use of fintech platforms, consumers will open up a little more for spending digitally," said Meet Jatakia, Director of Branding & Marketing, Cossouq.

"Measures such as, ‘Make AI in India' & ‘Entity Digi Locker' will support solutions in Agri, Health, Fintech, Sustainable City Infra, etc. The ‘National Data Governance Policy' will enable access to anonymized data for startups, academia & researchers, hopefully leading to data analytics & data science-led innovation across sectors.

The good part of this year's budget, and also exciting for the youth, is the entrepreneurial & skilling initiatives that the center intends to fund. India has one of the largest talent pools globally, and skilling the youth for international opportunities signals the intention of 'Make in India' for the world. Similarly, in PMKVY 4.0, vocational training in high-growth sectors such as AI, Coding, IoT, Drones, Robotics, etc., for the youth will also help ensure the availability of talent in these sectors and will serve to boost the demand for new-age companies, startups, MSMEs and corporates operating in this space," says Karan Keswani, Managing Director, Brinc India.