Budget 2022: Futuristic and inclusive – The Financial Express

By Ashok Hinduja

With stable tax structures, the Budget exercise was to turn into a vision and policy communication document of the government, moving away from a What has got expensive document. This Budget shows that we are already there with our vision for our journey from the 75th year to the 100th year of Independence as the FM outlined.

The data on GDP clearly indicate that we are just at the pre-Covid level overall. Agriculture, which supports half of our population, has kept its pace of growth with record production of food grain, in spite of Covid-19. However, the manufacturing and services sectors, other than a few niche good performers, have not recovered to the pre-Covid level. We may have lost two years and there is a need to make up for this as we spring back.

There are several splendid examples on how India has used its expertise in digital technology for governance and for the benefit of its people: Aadhaar card, direct bank transfer to beneficiaries, Covid vaccination, cashless payment platforms, GST and income tax. This time, the government has embarked on the next stage of evolution to bring the benefits to all its citizens in a very inclusive and futuristic framework.

It is encouraging to note that the central theme is holistic and integrated. Be it the standardised high-quality education in the local language at the doorstep as envisaged by the expanded PM e-Vidya scheme, or the digital integration of post office and banking, or the agriculture-oriented and rural development schemes. We are laying the foundation to create a powerful rural India that is not going to be isolated. That is the force multiplier the new India wants.

The PLI for the manufacturing sector in multiple priority sectors announced over the course of last year were the first step of a multi-year project seeking to make Indian a global hub of manufacturing. Continued support to nurture these industries is very welcome.

Modern infrastructure and unified multimodal logistics through the PM Gati Shakti Yojana as an integrated centrepiece is a vision well set. This is a complex project with enormous potential for employment generation and we hope to see good implementation.

Public investment has been boosted, which is very much needed for us to recover from the Covid-related slowdown.It is now well proven that entrepreneurs have grown sophisticated and competent to start up companies, look for and get funding and drive innovation. Todays start-up or MSME is the mainstream industry of tomorrow. The encouragements to MSMEs and start-ups are great investments for the future.

The FM could have announced treating OCI/NRI investments on a par with investments made by resident investors, which has been a longstanding demand of the global diaspora. It is time the diaspora is used as another economic engine. Perhaps healthcare also could have been given higher priority.

Robust GST collection is a good sign of the stabilisation of the system and use of automated analytics to weed out input credit leakage have been good moves.The government has shown its commitment to clean and green technology, like the encouragement for EVs, renewable energy, battery storage, battery swapping interoperability standards, and energy as a service.

The FM has communicated a clear path for India and it is important to see the we implement these successfully keeping the inclusive and futuristic spirit at every step.

The author is chairman, Hinduja Group of Companies (India)

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Budget 2022: Futuristic and inclusive - The Financial Express