Budget 2021 ‘super-balanced’ with focus on health, infra, agri: Dailyhunt’s Umang Bedi
The Union Budget for 2021-22 is ‘super-balanced’ as it focuses on a range of critical sectors such as healthcare, infrastructure and agriculture, Dailyhunt co-founder Umang Bedi said Monday.
The Union Budget for 2021-22 is ‘super-balanced’ as it focuses on a range of critical sectors such as healthcare, infrastructure and agriculture, Dailyhunt co-founder Umang Bedi said Monday.
“The focus on health, infrastructure and agriculture shows the government is looking at how to revive the economy in a long-term sustainable way,” said Bedi, the former head of Facebook India.
Bedi welcomed several proposals that Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced in her budget speech. These included Rs 35,000 crore for the COVID-19 vaccine, the vehicle scrapping scheme, focus on human capital, innovation and on the financial and infrastructure sectors.
The Budget also had measures for small businesses, enhanced the foreign direct investment limit for the insurance sector and didn’t tinker with the tax regime.
The Budget, he added, also extended the tax holiday and the capital gains exemption to startups by a year until March 2022. “All this makes it a super-balanced budget,” he said.
In terms of ease of doing business, he said: “A lot of good elements have come into play in this budget – whether it is around NRIs, tax holidays or friendlier tax regimes.”
Bedi also said the government should take more steps to help micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) as these businesses have been impacted the most because of the pandemic.
“I would love to see further emphasis on small businesses because the moment those businesses start coming back, domestic consumption rises,” he said.
Bedi also talked about the National Language Translation Mission that Sitharaman announced to make governance-and-policy related knowledge on the Internet available in major Indian languages.
The mission is in line with the National Education Policy, Bedi said. “It will encourage innovative apps focused on local languages, and enhance access to digital content across India, even in rural areas.”
For YourStory's multimedia coverage of Budget 2021, visit YourStory's Budget 2021 page or budget.yourstory.com.
