Budget 2023: Leveraging cloud services can help in building Digital India

As the Union Budget for the year 2023–24 is just a few feet away; numerous expectations and hopes are popping up in the minds of various industry leaders. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is all set to lay out the Union Budget in Lok Sabha on Wednesday, February 1 at 11 a.m. for the year 2023–24. As all the attention is on the upcoming budget, various industry leaders have numerous expectations from the budget, such as in the EV sector, technologies, jobs, etc.

The major task of the Finance Minister is to maintain the path of growth and, during that time, keep a close watch on the fiscal deficit and inflation. Different sectors and industries have different demands from the budget, and similarly, the technology sector and EV charging sector ecosystem also has some specific demands and expectations from the government. The technology sector has been one of the fastest-growing in recent years, owing to a variety of factors. Some of these factors are increasing digital awareness and its acceptance, the surge in the demand for cloud services, the arrival of 5G services in India, and the emergence of e-commerce. Being such an important sector, it has several expectations and hopes from the budget.

Dr. Christopher Richard, MD, is the Chief Cloud Architect at G7 CR Technologies says, "Union Budget 2023 announcements on February 1 are expected to further make India a global technology hub. It will be great to see the Union Budget allocate funds towards incentivizing the use of cloud technologies among start-ups and SaaS businesses. As Gartner has also reported that the spending on information technology in India is projected to grow at 2.6% in 2023, government's policy decisions will shape the future of India’s thriving SaaS ecosystem. We are seeing a technological revolution, so it is essential that the government encourages and supports independent software vendors (ISVs), so that they can flourish and innovate new things to succeed. Today, businesses are heavily relying on large amounts of data, which can be churned out into valuable insights by using cloud computing and other new age technologies to address problems faced by people. At this juncture, leveraging of cloud services can greatly help in building a truly ‘Digital India.”

TelioEV-  Electric Vehicle Charging Management Solutions provider company has an entire system based on technology for the EV ecosystem. "The rapidly expanding electric vehicle (EV) industry in India is eagerly anticipating the impending 2023–2024 budget. The speedier adoption and production of hybrid and electric vehicles (FAME-II), as well as the decrease in the GST, are extensions of the expectations for the EV sector. We, along with the advanced chemistry cell (ACC) battery market, anticipate that the GST will be reduced and brought into line with that of EVs (5 percent). In its pre-Budget proposals, the industry organisation suggested a constant GST rate of 5% on spare parts for electric vehicles. The commercial EV industry in India also expects more developments. The government must take commercial EV funding into account to enable quick adoption in the E4W category. We demand reduced interest rates for EV finance rather than subsidies and standardization of residual battery value calculation, an extension of FAME-II. Furthermore, EV producers anticipate that the government will take a long-term approach and extend the program's length past 2024. This policy stability will eventually lead to a surge in the country's EV adoption.” said Dr. Lalit Singh- Chief Growth Officer at TelioEV.

Therefore, these are some of the expectations and hopes of the technology sector from the upcoming budget, which is all set to be presented on February 1 by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.