E-Commerce
Mr. Kiran Murthi, CEO, AskmeBazaar -
Honourable Finance Minister has presented a business friendly budget which is encouraging for young and fast growing India. Taking the “Start-up India” action plan forward, the budget allocated Rs. 500 cr for SC/ST & Women entrepreneurs. The announcements made during the budget also include a 100 per cent tax exemption for 3 years for start-ups, which is a welcome step. The Minister also proposed an amendment of Companies Act to allow new start-ups to register in one day. These steps will help to create a favorable business environment in the country.
We welcome this budget as a progressive step in the right direction with an intention to promote entrepreneurship and encouraging start-ups in India.
Also, the Finance Minister reiterated the Government’s focus on rolling out GST. We are hopeful that GST will be a reality soon, thereby ensuring uniformity in tax rates and regulations.
Overall, we are positive that the announcements made today will lead to strong economic growth of the country.
Apoorv Jain, CEO, and Co-Founder, Express Stores
"The budget gave major emphasis to healthcare and infra sectors. Besides, a host of substantial announcements were made on the divestment front, including the coming IPO of Life Insurance Corporation. Incentivization to one person company by removing capital limits, free conversions and overhauling residency limits definitely will boost the startup ecosystem in India. We welcome the move to help India's startups beat pandemic blues, the tax holiday extended by one more year to March 2022 during Budget presentations today. The capital gains exemption given to startups was also extended by a year more."
Hitesh Jirawla, Founder CEO, Cubictree, a Mumbai-based India’s largest legal tech startups working with more than 300 companies in India
The FM presented a digital Budget, a yet another first of India. It is a small step but goes to show the intent of this govt to move to digital transformation in every way possible.
Indian Courts have been under tremendous pressure with limited availability of judges. Longer litigation results in higher costs, procedural hassles that consumers and companies suffer. The proposed MCA21 Version 3.0 will roll out e-scrutiny and other compliance management initiatives thereby bringing down the legal costs for companies and individuals. Use of deep tech, will over time impact the judgement delivery thereby making it faster and for some standard cases, there is a possibility to introduce an element of automation in documentation and other legal processes. We believe the govt has taken a lead in addressing the problems that currently ails the judiciary system in our country. Over time, India may see fast closer of matters and justice served to the people who have been waiting a long time.
Cyber Secuity
Kumar Ritesh, Founder CEO, CYFIRMA, a Cyber intelligence and threat discovery startup.
This is one of the most business-friendly Union Budget we have seen in a while, and this is rightly so given the urgent need for a strong economic recovery. The initiatives to ease the setting up of new companies bode well for the technology sector. This will promote an even greater entrepreneurial culture and put India squarely on the global map of technology innovation. Given India’s young, dynamic and tech-savvy workforce, we should expect more companies choosing India as a base to leverage on our vast talent. India’s fast growing middle-class population should also be a magnet for businesses seeking to tap on the underserved market here.Further, the Finance Minister’s announcement that companies will receive RS1500 crore to encourage their adoption of digital payments will go a long way to promote Fintech innovation, and more importantly, give millions of unbanked Indians the opportunity to participate in the financial system. With digital payments becoming mainstream, the government should also start looking at uplifting cybersecurity awareness and education among businesses as well as consumers. This way, the twin engines of growth – innovation and digitalization – can be sustainable in the long run.
Pankit Desai, Co-founder CEO, Sequretek, a cyber security startup based in Mumbai
The much-awaited Budget 2021 has provided a significant push for healthcare, agriculture and rural economy, but unfortunately nothing concrete for startups and the surrounding ecosystem. For the majority of startups, demand remains the same, nothing changes, its business as usual. Forming a one person company doesn't help startups whatsoever unless they want startups to form a single person company. There is some push for fintech and startups from this sector will stand to benefit, however, the budget did not share anything substantial in terms of ease of doing business, compliance or GST taxation that would make life any different for a cybersecurity company like ours. I am hoping that the stimulus and other investments that allow the economy to do well, indirectly will support us as we finally serve that economy in some shape and form through our customers.
Pavan Adipuram, Co-founder CEO, ChitMonks, a Hyderabad-based BlockChain startup working with govt and Chit Fund companies to make Chit Fund operations easy to regulate and more transparent for chit subscribers.
The Budget this year was riding high on expectations from taxpayers and businesses. The FM has tried her best to deliver on a majority of parameters. It is heartening that the much talked about COVID cess wasn’t introduced neither any dramatic increase in taxation for the businesses.For a digital first company like ours, the proposal of Rs 1500 crore to incentivise digital payments will accelerate the financial technologies sector growth. In investment instruments like Chit Funds, Mutual Funds, online payments, more companies are expected to move to 100% digital payments mode which will ensure further transparency and confidence on individuals and it will address the problem of any scams running that take advantage of innocent individuals. However, the devil would be in the details. We look forward to the details of this proposed scheme as it will tell us how the incentives will work for the companies and individuals.
Ed-Tech
Rajeev Tiwari, Founder, STEMROBO Technologies, STEM Education company for K-12 students.
In the Union Budget, to promote Startup - announcement of Incorporation of One Person Company, Easing of Definition of Small Company from the point of view Corporate Law Compliance are a welcome step.
Innovation & R&D will get a boost by allocating National Regional Foundation (NRF) a sum of 50000 Cr and boost Innovation Culture in startups.
Announcement of Non-Auditing of Income Tax till 10 Cr. and allowing Startups to claim IT Exemption and Capital Gains for 1 more Year will ease the Compliance Burden of Startups and help in raising more funds.
NEP (New Education Policy) has been given a thrust in the budget. The plan to set up 15000 Pilot Schools as a showcase for NEP, which can be exemplary for other schools, is a welcome step and will lead to promoting NEP in the School Ecosystem. Tribal School-Eklavya Schools with newer allocation – in tribal areas will spur further development of education in tribal areas. Allocation of the National Apprenticeship Scheme for 3000 Cr and increasing the contours of it will benefit companies.
Innovation & R&D will get a boost by allocating National Regional Foundation (NRF) a sum of 50000 Cr for the next 6 Years. Research and Innovation Ecosystem to get a substantial growth.
Anoop Gautam, CEO & Co-founder, Tinker Coders ( An online coding platform for K-12 students)
The unprecedented contractions put forth by the Covid-19 crisis have changed the economical aspects, entirety. Many changes were incorporated keeping in mind the challenges being faced by people at the grass-roots level. The startup industry, Edtech space too witnessed contractions and flattening of the curve in terms of growth and expansion. However, the recovery and normalcy rate has improved to a larger extent keeping in mind the implications of the pandemic.
Union Budget 2021 has focused on strengthening 15000 schools with all the components of NEP as a pilot project. Also, skill enrichment programs will be initiated in collaboration with the United Arab Emirates which will bring new opportunities for the youth of our country. FM Shrimati Nirmala Sitharaman also mentioned to initialize a collaborative training program with Japan, which will be launched for more countries as well in the upcoming future.This year’s Union Budget has focused primarily on innovation and research development, therefore it has become even important for the students in the K-12 segment to enhance their 21 st -Century skills in order to become skill-efficient in this tech-led generation. For startups, the government has proposed to reduce the margin money requirement from 25% to 15%. This will open a new door of opportunities for startups in upscaling their businesses. The government has also doubled the fund allocation for MSMEs, to a whopping 15,700 crores for FY22.
Abhishek Gupta, Founder and CEO, Hex N Bit ( An edtech platform provides one-stop solutions in Industry-Connect Skill Development Courses)
We welcome the budget for 2021. With an increase in the MSME budget of Rs 15,700 crore, which is more than double of the previous year, can help the startups as well as MSME but as seen there are approximately 50k startups in India, so a big boost was expected in investment.
In the National apprenticeship training scheme–the Indian government has now allocated Rs. 3,000 Cr. for National apprenticeship which will create a Skilled & talented workforce with the bilateral partnership with United Arab Emirates (UAB) to provide training, certification, assessments etc. India will collaborate with Japan in order to adopt cutting edge technology, technique & vocational programs for scaling up the technology in India to newer heights.
The government of India has proposed the budget of Rs 50K crore over 5 years for innovation & R&D. There will be an expectation from the Government to spend setting up the Innovation lab focusing on the technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Machine learning, Data analytics, etc. which can showcase the solution to most of the problem statement in most of the field including medical, agriculture, defence or any natural disaster.
As proposed by FM, capital expenditure is now increased to Rs. 5.54 Lakh crore from Rs. 4.39 Lakh crore, hopefully, the state & center will invest a considerable amount for digital connectivity, high-speed internet at an affordable rate as well as learning assets in a remote location so that aspirants can learn new-age technology to build New India. Even after the economic crisis due to Covid-19, an increase in the capital expenditure with such a high number must be appreciated.
Boost to start-up hub in India, as proposed by FM, there will be a plan to enforce incentives incorporation of one-person companies without any restriction on paid-up capital. Can set up this company in 180 days.
Mr Ankit Dudhwewala, Founder, SoftwareSuggest & CallHippo
"When it was announced, the budget hurt the Sensex. In the grip of a slowdown, businesses in India expected a far more pro-business budget. While the budget may not be precisely what the business community wanted, it has several silver linings, especially for the IT sector.
Data centres are at the heart of a modern digital economy; the government's decision to promote the establishment of data centres in India is a win-win for businesses and consumers. A considerably more significant number of data centres in India will make the economy more competitive globally. Indian IT players will benefit from the building of additional data centres.
The relaxation related to Employee Stock Option Plans is another huge plus. Employees awarded stocks need not pay tax on them for the next five years. Not paying tax on stocks will go a long way in making companies competitive by helping them attract the best talent. Finally taxing dividend when it is in recipients hands will be beneficial to the business".
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