Budget reactions: Digital players bullish, path paved to make India a tech-first nation

Digital players across India are upbeat about the Budget 2018 proposals and see them providing a huge growth impetus for India's digital advertising sector as well as powering the Digital India drive. 

 

 

 

 

 

Rohan Bhansali, Director & Co-Founder, Gozoop:

“As an Indian, I applaud the Government’s focus on the poorest of poor. Farmers, healthcare and rural India were the main focal points of the Budget. From a macro standpoint, reducing the class gap within our social structure, not only has profound social benefits but also serious economic benefits in terms of consumption and lower subsidies. Corporate India will see the benefits of these in the long run; we will be stronger as a country and as an economy. 

As an entrepreneur, what brought the biggest smile to my face is obviously the 25 per cent corporate tax rate extension to companies of my size. Education cess increasing to 4 per cent (from 3 per cent) leads to a slight increase in tax outflow for companies. 

As an integrated digital-first marketing company, what is most encouraging is the 5 lakh Wi-Fi hotspots that will bring 5 crore rural Indians online. This accelerates the inevitably increasing role that digital advertising will play in the marketing landscape of companies. Improving education quality through technology and digital is an uplifting announcement, as well. 

As an employer, I am mixed – standard deduction increasing to Rs 40,000 will lead to limited savings for employees. We are cheering out of proportion. What is more worthy of rejoice for an employee is the ease of life that the Railway Budget will bring. The Railways are the lifeline of India and the primary mode of transport to and from work for the working class. All stations with a footfall greater than 25,000 will have escalators. Rs 11,000 crore has been allocated to Mumbai alone and I hope to see commute becoming more comfortable. The reduced stress from commuting will lead to marked improvement in efficiency at work. 

As a tax payer, I would have liked to see standard deduction increasing and tax slabs relaxing, but the Government obviously needs to balance fiscal deficit too. 

Overall, this Budget restores my faith that the Government is thinking long term and investing our country’s resources in the right areas.” 

Gopa Kumar, Executive Vice-President, Isobar:

“This year’s Budget reaction is a mixed one. I think there could have been more done. Some positives which I see include an increased focus on Digital India initiatives and the allocation increasing to Rs 3,073 crore. Broadband access to 5 crore rural citizens and setting up of Wi-Fi hotspots is also encouraging and will give a huge boost to the digital economy. While the Government has said that it would explore usage of Block Chain Technology, Cryptocurrency still not becoming mainstream is a disappointment. I feel there should definitely have been some roadmap for the same, if not immediate. Focus on Digital and Technology in the education sector is also a step in the right direction. No change in personal taxes is a dampener as it was expected that there would be some change in that regard, while Standard Deduction of 40k is some relief.” 

Ashok Kumar Gupta, Chairman, Zirca Digital Solutions:

“This Budget follows the structural changes made by the Government previously. Structural changes like GST and demonetisation will play a critical role in enabling India’s transition to a digital-first economy. The slew of initiatives unveiled today not only benefits the agricultural and rural sectors, but also succeeds in giving infrastructure development a boost. This Budget will certainly give an impetus to the economy. And, we look forward to more GDP growth in the coming days.” 

Udit Bhambri, Country Head, VML India:

“This year, the Budget allocation has helped in creating impactful reforms for a few much needed sectors, including agriculture, the rural economy, infrastructure, good health, quality of education, employment and the MSMEs. As far the digital sector is concerned, besides the allocation of budgets on Digital Infra Development, we haven’t witnessed any new reform. Digital is the fastest growing sector of India. Overall, we do see ad spends and penetration in rural India robust this year with the announcement of having 5 lakh Wi-Fi hotspots access to 5 crore rural people. And with the 5G development Centre for India, it certainly is a welcome move.” 

Sahil Chopra, CEO and Founder, iCubesWire:

“The much-awaited announcement of the Union Budget prompted a gust of anticipation and higher expectations. While Finance Minister Arun Jaitley touts the Union Budget as primarily focused on the agricultural sector, it sure reeks of reforms beneficial for numerous other sectors as well. 

The Government has always encouraged the digital sector to flourish and the Budget rightfully justifies their farsighted approach. This year, the allocation to the Digital India Scheme has been doubled to Rs 3,073 crore, which is a worthwhile move for the industry as a whole. Not only that, with the onset of fast-paced technology and Artificial Intelligence shaping the new segment of the digital world, NITI Aayog will establish a national programme for Artificial Intelligence. This is a clap-worthy reform which will help organisations diversifying with AI to have a wider scope with vast awareness among everyone. For a higher Internet penetration, 5 lakh Wi-Fi hotspots will be set up in rural areas, which again is beneficial for the rural dwellers. The need to eliminate cryptocurrencies, which are funding illegitimate transactions was also mentioned. The Government has proposed to revamp the system of sanctioning loans to SMEs. As per the Budget reforms, now the information will be linked with GSTN and will be fetched from the same. This comes across as a welcome move as not only will it streamline the process, but will enable people to get accustomed to the digital ingress. Corporate companies with a turnover of up to Rs 250 crore will also be highly benefitted from the Budget as the corporate tax has been further reduced to 25 per cent. 

As per my opinion, the Union Budget has surely set a benchmark and the year looks promising with excellent reforms leading to growth and development of the economy.” 

Ashish Shah, Founder and CEO, Vertoz:

“The Union Budget has in store a lot of good news for the Digital Advertising sector. Digital Advertising can now expect better digital infrastructure to help it flourish. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has given a push to the Digital India campaign by doubling up the allocation for the Digital India scheme to Rs 3,073 crore. 

Digital advertising can now come up with advanced technologies and algorithms to serve ads better as the Government plans to invest in R&D in machine learning. 

As 50 million Indians are empowered with easy Internet access, marketers will now be able to tap the huge rural markets and get more traffic. To facilitate this, the Government has allocated Rs 10,000 crore, providing 5 lakh Wi-Fi hotspots in rural areas. Brands which were only focusing on Tier 1 and 2 cities will need to plan their advertising strategies for rural areas, which will now be easily accessible through the Internet.” 

Deepak Mittal, CEO, To The New:

“The Union Budget 2018 provides a great push towards technology adoption, with an increase in investments towards research in new areas such as machine learning, artificial intelligence, and robotics. It is good to see the focus increasing on leveraging best-in-class technologies such as Block Chain and Artificial Intelligence to strengthen the country’s cybersecurity and use digital technologies to improve the overall quality of education in India.” 

 

Abhesh Verma, COO, nexGTv:

“The Finance Minister has doubled the Budget for the Digital India Scheme, emerging as a major move towards assisting the nation to progress further. The second development of investment of Rs 10,000 crore for rural Wi-Fi hotspots, giving 5 crore citizens access to broadband speed Internet by the deployment of 5 lakh Wi-Fi hotspots should help bring more consumers online, increasing digital consumption of services like OTT, entertainment, banking, and e-commerce. We at nexGTv feel that all these steps are a definite plus for the significant growth of the digital businesses in the country.” 

Shrenik Gandhi, Co-founder, White Rivers Media:

“Doubling the Budget allocation for the Digital India scheme to Rs 3,073 crore is a welcome move. This, coupled with half a million Wi-fi hotspots to get 50 million more people under the Digital Universe, is a positive sign. Increasing focus on the digital education sector and artificial intelligence and a national programme for cyberspace are pretty thoughtful gestures. All of these clearly indicate the Government’s keen interest in making the Digital India story stronger. However, derecognising the cryptocurrency market shall have a negative global impact, yet it is a strong statement coming from world’s largest democracy. A 5 per cent relief in corporate tax for companies with revenues below Rs 250 crore shall give a lot of impetus to the SME segments. Overall, the Budget is pretty balanced and covers a lot of important aspects and is not an appeasement filled Budget. Most importantly, the success of these lies in Digital Adaptation, the same can make it or break it, in the last Pre-Election Year!” 

Kunal Lakhara, VP – Finance, Pocket Aces:

“The announcement of an allocation of Rs 3,073 crore in the Budget under the Digital India Program is a welcome boost. This, along with installation of Wi-fi hotspots across the country, demonstrates this Government’s continued focus on improving rural infrastructure and Internet connectivity. With increase in consumption of content “on the go”, these measures will help increase content consumption and audience base.” 

 

Chetan Asher, Founder & CEO, Tonic Worldwide:

“This is an excellent Budget from the digital perspective. As expected, the Government has doubled its allocation to the Digital India initiative at Rs 3,073 crore. This will grow the entire digital economy and the Government has shown that this is going to be focus area. Its commitment to exploring Block Chain and AI only ratifies its vision for Digital India. The other game changer is enhancing rural regions with 5 lakh Wi-Fi hotspots. This would lead to higher adoption, skills upgrade and rural citizens embracing digital quickly. This Budget gives me hope that we are on our way to becoming a digital led economy.” 

Rajiv Dingra, Founder & CEO, WATConsult:

“Keeping in mind that next year India is going to polls, there were a lot of expectations from the Union Budget, especially after the kind of discussions that have happened around development. Hopes were high that the Budget would be made on the lines to achieve Mission 2020. While we have seen some good things like free medical care, women empowerment, and digital education, however, the middle class seems to be ignored in all of this. There are no rate cuts or slab adjustments to reduce tax liability. And by saying that the Government will explore Block Chain Technology and discourage crypto-currency, what we fail to realise is that our position in the global market will be hampered.” 

Pankaj Krishna, Founder & CEO, Chrome Data Analytics & Media:

“Despite having among the most intelligent of men working on the Budget, we have the highest levels of tax evasion. The ideation is great, but I just hope that it is implemented with as much urgency and vigour. On a selfish note, the raising of cap from Rs 50 crore to Rs 250 crore for reduced corporate tax is quite welcome for a small business such as ours. Also, the focus on rural economy should have spin-off benefits for broadcasting and the larger media & entertainment industry.” 

 

Prabhakar Chaudhary, MD, HAL Robotics:

“Emphasising on Digital India powered over AI and by allocating substantial fund, this Government has seriously understood the need and capability of technology. It’s great to see that the Government is recognising future technology for building the nation’s future. Not only will this help in job creation, it will also advance the nation in a competitive global space.” 

 

Ashish Bahukhandi, Founder & CEO, Apps Discover Technologies:

“This Budget is set to play a key factor in stimulating the growth aspect of the digital advertising industry. The Government’s decision of installing 5 lakh Wi-Fi hotspots in rural areas for easy Internet access will help digital advertising in enhancing its reach even in rural areas. 

As for the much-anticipated corporate tax, the 25 per cent tax cut on companies with an annual turnover of Rs 250 crore will be a crucial factor in fostering the growth rate of MSMEss (Micro Small Medium Enterprise). Companies like ours will now be able to look further in the direction of expansion as the relaxation in tax slab is a huge relief for us.” 

Atul Rai, CEO and Co-founder, Staqu:

“This year’s Budget not only takes significant steps towards the Digital India vision, but also towards inculcating the latest technologies like Artificial Intelligence for national development. With NITI Aayog to establish a national programme for Artificial Intelligence, we look forward to supporting the nation with R&D support and more programmes like ABHED, which is already assisting the police force with AI capabilities. With the advent of new technologies and the Indian Government being equally eager to adopt them, we strongly foresee the nation to be on the road to transformation and emerge as one of the leading digital nations on the world map.” 

Aakrit Vaish, Founder & CEO, Haptik:
“Allocation of significant fund and announcing efforts to enhance research in disruptive technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT) and Robotics implies that the importance of adoption of such technologies has finally been taken into consideration by the Government. With NITI Aayog to establish a national programme for Artificial Intelligence, this will not only significantly aid job creation, but will also assist the Government to move towards its Digital India vision.” 

Ambika Sharma, Founder & MD, Instappy:
“The latest Budget announcement holds great promise. I am particularly enthused by doubling the allocation to Digital India to Rs 3,073 crore for the 2018-19 fiscal. This move will empower the society in areas like broadband and mobile connectivity and government services on demand and will help the country’s vision to be a digital-first economy. 

Furthermore, the allocation of Rs 10,000 crore for the 5 lakh Wi-Fi hotspots to provide broadband access to 5 crore rural citizens is also promising. With nearly 70 per cent of the country’s population living in rural and semi-urban geographies, the move will give the vision of a ‘Digital India’ a big boost and provide businesses an opportunity to upscale.” 

Neeraj Sharma, Country Head, Spreadtrum India:
“The increase in the customs duty on imported mobile phones is a great move, which will boost the ‘Make in India’ campaign by promoting local manufacturing. The Government’s focus on the new digital technologies will help lead to a empowered digital society and a knowledge economy.” 

Rajiv Vaidya, CEO, Spuul India:
“The Government is making a serious push to digitise India by doubling the Budget allocation to Digital India to Rs 3,073 crore this fiscal Budget. The 5 lakh Wi-Fi hotspots will help ensure that every single village in India has digital access. These initiatives would help push video consumption across OTT platforms. Acceleration of digital payments and mobile wallets will also drive usage of SVOD and TVOD models.” 

Dhruv Verma, CEO & Founder, GolfLan Group (India’s first Golf start-up):
“We welcome the Government’s decision to further enhance the Budget allocated to Rs 3,073 crore under the Digital India Scheme. The announcement will help give a push to the Indian Golf Sector, where the use of digital technology is still minimal. We strongly believe that digital technology will make inroads that will change the way we see the game of Golf in India. We have already seen digital technology supported golfing is a growing trend all over the world. 

Golf is better known for tradition than cutting-edge technology, but new apps and mobile-device systems will encourage bringing the sport to a younger generation of players. With digital push, even the Golf course operators of India will be able to better manage and track their golf car fleet, manage pace-of-play issues and increase food, beverage and merchandise revenues. This will also help them to distinguish themselves from their competitors and build brand and customer loyalty.”

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