Union Budget Reaction 2022 By Amit Madhan – President & Group Head – Technology & eBusiness – Thomas Cook (India) Ltd.

The recent future ready budget presented by Honorable FM showcases a strong focus on technology and technologic advancement for the country. It highlights India’s immense potential and growth of the IT sector. This development will only help in our economy becoming stronger and self-sustained.

This new phase of technology that will be guided by the active involvement of the states, digitization of manual processes & interventions, integration of central & state level systems through IT bridges, single-point access for all citizen-centric services, standardization and removal of over-lapping compliance, crowdsourcing of suggestions, and ground-level assessment of the impact with active involvements of citizens and businesses will lead to an overall encouraging and efficient economic growth.

The financial support for digital payment ecosystem announced in the previous budget that will continue in 2022-23, will definitely further encourage the adoption of digital payments and will also lead to enhanced use of payment platforms that are economical and user friendly.

The budget highlighted the rapid growth of digital banking, digital payments & fintech innovations. Our Government’s continuous support to these sectors ensures the said benefits reach far and wide along with being user friendly. The laying of optical fibers in villages (to be completed by 2025) showcases the power of technology, and having each person connected to the world, thereby leading to each ones’ self-development and growth.

We are a country with a large young population, and the announcement of high quality e-content in all spoken languages to be delivered by internet, mobile phones, TV & through radio and digital teachers along with a digital university that will be set up to provide access to students to world class quality universal education, with a personalized learning experience will help deliver quality education and make young India future ready.

As highlighted in the budget, green energy and clean mobility systems have immense potential to modernize the country, thereby making the Indian industry more inclusive that will in turn lead to generate employment for the youth.

It will be an exciting space for the Indian IT industry and we are enthused with the announcement of digital Rupee to be issued by the RBI and the green bonds for enhancement of green infrastructure. The creation of the digital health ecosystem will help further strengthen India’s healthcare system.