Shekhar Sanyal, Director and Country Head, IET India

• “The Indian work scenario is changing at a rapid pace and the workforce to drive this change is currently not industry-ready. It is important that the government puts aside significant resources to research, understand and implement the necessary steps to create the work employer and skills ecosystem that will allow India and its workforce to continue to be globally competitive and valuable. With the upcoming budget the government should keep a  fund just focused on creating an education system that will provide skills for the future as well as get ready to reskill the current workforce to make them future-ready.
• The government regulatory framework around skilling and future of skilling and work require continuous research and input which the budget should allow for. It should also aid the growing pool of micro – entrepreneurs and the Gig economy, by setting up frameworks and an institutionalised body to monitor it.
• The budget should also cater to the needs of students by providing exposure to new technologies and create facilities that exposes to these technologies.
• It should also have provisions for academia to spend on new technologies and expand facilities to help students with exposure to real-time application of new-age technologies”

Dr. Rishi Bhatnagar, Chairman, IET IOT panel and President, Aeris Communications

“We saw the 2019 budget give prominence to AI and IoT under the reskilling initiative, investing Rs 436 crore towards the PRIME (Programme for Reskilling/ Upskilling of IT Manpower for Employability) programme. This year, however, there is a pressing need for the government to take a closer look at developing emerging and frontier technologies. This can be achieved only if the government incentivises domestic innovation and encourages the liberalisation of norms. We are looking at the 2020 budget to drive the development of rapidly emerging technologies such as AI/ML and IoT domestically, which is the most effective way for India to move towards dynamic development and global relevance.”