–          Debashis Chatterjee, CEO and Managing Director, LTIMindtree

“The Union Budget 2023 is forward-looking and offers something to every section of the society without compromising on fiscal consolidation. It underscores the growing significance of cloud, data, artificial intelligence, and other new-age technologies in governance, while also taking a big step forward in simplifying processes and improving the ease of doing business. The budget’s emphasis on digitalization and trust-based governance will open new opportunities for the IT sector to leverage its globally acknowledged technology strengths to make a difference here.

One of the salient aspects of the budget is its continued emphasis on skilling, employability, and industry-academia collaboration, which are critical to India’s competitiveness as a global hub of digital and Industry 4.0 skills. Unveiling avenues for leading industry players to partner with educational institutions in driving interdisciplinary research and cutting-edge AI and 5G applications will create a win-win proposition for both — a rich training ground for students involving real-world challenges and use-cases, and greater opportunities for the industry to further strengthen the digital ecosystem in India. By building upon the earlier vision of a more structured development of Tier 2 and 3 cities, the budget will further enhance our ability to capitalize on an expanded talent pool, vital to the long-term sustainability and scalability of the IT services industry in India. Overall, the budget speaks to India’s potential to become a global benchmark in technology-led transformation.

Spurring consumption through a slew of measures — taxation benefits, an exclusive savings scheme for women, and enhanced investment limits for senior citizens, to name a few — will provide impetus to higher capital expenditure in the private sector as well.”

–          Amit Chadha, CEO & MD, L&T Technology Services

“The Union Budget 2023 has shown a strong focus on boosting digital infrastructure and adoption, which is a positive sign for the technology industry. It was also encouraging to see Hon’ble Finance Minister Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman share her vision of “making AI in India and making AI work for India”, further highlighting the importance of building a strong AI ecosystem in India. We welcome the government’s move towards developing three AI excellence centres and 100 5G labs, as well as introducing the National Data Governance Bill, which will open up a wide range of opportunities for business growth and employment generation. As a pure-play ER&D services provider, our belief is that such a mass scale enablement of digital transformation and innovation will unlock the full potential of the Indian engineering and technology sector. It will also result in complementing uptake of digital engineering capabilities resulting in the country maintaining its strong hold as a global preferred destination for engineering services.”

–          Venkatraman Narayanan, MD & CFO, Happiest Minds Technologies

“Digital has emerged as the hallmark of Union Budget announced today. Be it setting up of AI-focused CoEs, or Unified Digital Skilling platform, the role of digital technologies is empathetically at the forefront of India’s economic rise. It will be interesting to see how the paperless digital locker based documentation storage and management for citizens shapes up, as accordingly it promises to open up a wave of opportunities in the domestic market related to cyber security, cloud, AI and ML. While tax exceptions on exports are a welcome step, certain breather on corporate tax would have complemented it well.

Overall, it is a sound and holistic budget devised to ensure upliftment, empowerment and inclusivity to all.”

–          Manish Mimani, Founder & CEO, Protectt.ai

“It is encouraging to see the government focus on building a digitally-driven nation in the Union Budget. By expanding innovative services in the fintech space, along with announcing the vision of Make AI in India and Make AI Work for India, we have a lot to look forward. Though not explicitly highlighted in the Budget, we can also expect to see the cybersecurity landscape evolve and benefit from increased use of AI in operations, products, and services. In addition, the government’s relief measures for startups in areas of tax benefits and setting off losses comes as a welcome move, and will go a long way in encouraging the Indian startup ecosystem to continue to innovate.”