Recovery, resilience, reforms – 35 quotes on Union Budget 2022 expectations

Launched in 2014, StoryBites is a weekly feature from YourStory, featuring notable quotable quotes in our articles of this past week. Share these 35 insights with your colleagues and networks, and check back to the original articles for more insights. See our special compilation of quotes related to India’s coronavirus responses here.

See also our pick of Top Quotes of 2021 on Entrepreneurship, Investment, Digital Transformation, Storytelling, The India Opportunity, Pandemic Resilience, Failure Recovery, Design, and Art.

Health

The pandemic exposed the deficiencies in our healthcare infrastructure and now it is imperative for the nation that the allocation to healthcare be increased and raised at least 2.5 percent of the GDP. - Vivek Tiwari, Medikabazaar

The Union Budget should emphasise women's wellness, especially menstrual hygiene. We already have tax exemption on sanitary pads, however, this could be extended to manufacturing and production. - Anika Parashar, The Woman Company

The general public would be greatly benefitted if an exemption or even reduction of GST for counselling services can be considered. - Richa Singh, YourDost

With health and wellness taking center stage, there should be a relaxation of taxes on essential wellness products. - Shilpa Khanna Thakkar, Chicnutrix

Considering the high medical costs that most employees have incurred amid COVID-19, the HR industry expects a tax reduction in this area of concern. - Vidur Gupta, Spectrum Talent Management

We are hoping that more money will be spent on capital expenditure and healthcare projects to help India become more integrated into the global supply chain. - Ruchika Bhagat, Neeraj Bhagat & Co

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Financing and fintech

The government’s policies can also be helpful in promoting the flow of overseas capital by easing the requirements and thresholds for Indian debt instruments. - Sudhesh Chandrasekar, slice

Around 44 billion digital payments were recorded across India in 2021. The Union budget 2022-23 must take into account this growth in the industry and continue to provide incentives for this industry to thrive in the coming months. - Murali Nair, Zeta

Policymakers should provide due consideration to boost liquidity support to the NBFCs as well as encourage frameworks like co-lending, which will greatly boost the reach of financial institutions and progress in the financial inclusion imperative. - Shachindra Nath, U GRO Capital

It is essential that the government announce measures to ease the liquidity flow to NBFCs and fintechs. - Madhusudan Ekambaram, FACE

The government is already on to a good start, with the launch of the new Fintech department to drive innovation. - Himanshu Gupta, WeRize

Budget 2022-23 should focus on promoting innovation in fintech to build solutions that cater to evolving consumer needs and diverse segments. - Nikhil Sahni, Mastercard

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Tech transformation

India requires a semiconductor strategy that spans 20 years. Currently, India's semiconductor demand is fully covered by imports. - Arjun Bajaaj, Daiwa

There needs to be a higher investment in the skilling workforce as automation is replacing old jobs and creating new ones. The workforce should be upskilled for the next phase of industrialization i.e. Industry 4.0. - Deepak Jain & Sushil Pasricha, Partner, Bain & Company

At the consumer level, clearing the air on policies pertaining to new digital asset classes such as Crypto & NFT's will go a long way in helping Indian investors invest stress-free. - Ajay Lakhotia, StockGro

A well thought-out and progressive regularised environment will aid Indians to start their crypto investing journey, align with the government's vision of financial inclusion, and inspire modern technology startups to build world-class products that are made in India. - Sharan Nair, CoinSwitch Kuber

It is also crucial to capitalise on the success of homegrown technologies such as the UPI and encourage tech startups to invest in R&D and explore avenues to leverage existing tech and create new products. - Kumar Abhishek, ToneTag

The Indian government has shown its inclination towards digitisation in various fields. Similar efforts and policy changes are needed to ensure that digitisation of small businesses happens in Tier 2/3 towns, tehsils, talukas, and villages. - Harshvardhan Lunia, Lendingkart

There is a need to develop a centralised system for fraudulent practices reporting and ensure data security and privacy to the industry and the consumers. - Suhail Sameer, BharatPe

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Startup ecosystem

The budget should bring changes to the taxation of ESOP’s for a startup. These should be more employee-friendly and something at par with the global practices, which will help attract/retain talent. - Rishabh Goel, Credgenics

There is a need to build incubators and knowledge factories to promote startups, especially in the stock investment arena, since there is a rising interest but very few educational avenues. - Vikas Malpani, Leher App

Having a central body to regulate best practices in the education and edtech space will be largely beneficial for the consumers. - Charu Noheria, Practically

Edtech is an important driver of the Indian economy - online edtech businesses should get the tax benefits and GST exemptions - this will enable faster growth of edtech startups in India. - Yagnesh Sanghrajka, 100X.VC

As we constantly strive towards creating a level playing field for women entrepreneurs, what will be appreciated is some concession on GST for women-run businesses. - Hena Mehta, Basis

The government should allow direct listing of startups from overseas, especially those in the US market, as the risk appetite and understanding of deeptech ventures is quite high. - V Balakrishnan, Exfinity Venture Partners

There have been numerous changes for the better that have been implemented by the government over the years to make India the third-largest startup ecosystem globally, but now need those enablers to take it to a different scale. - Padmaja Ruparel, Indian Angel Network

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Sectoral recommendations

The introduction of innovative initiatives like the ‘sandbox schemes’ currently being followed by countries like Thailand and Indonesia will help India build a more resilient tourism economy going forward. - Aloke Bajpai, ixigo

Developing the national warehousing grid as a plug-and-play ecosystem with easy access to MSMEs will help eliminate several traditional growth blockers and rev-up the economy through a major uptick in both commerce, and generation of mass employment. - Amit Bansal, Solv

India’s logistics cost are high. Steps towards subsuming petroleum products under the GST regime have been under discussion for long; these will reduce fuel cost and progress needs to be made in that direction. - Saahil Goel, Shiprocket

Farm income is also intertwined with the deepening impact of climate change. Recognising India's vulnerability on this front, the government can add to its efforts for finding long-term sustainable solutions. Incentivising private investments in agrifood life sciences is certainly a step in that direction. - Subhadeep Sanyal, Omnivore

There is a need to reinforce, encourage, and recognise natural fibre growers as an integral element of the agricultural economy. - Mayank Tiwari, ReshaMandi

The government can incentivise [the solar sector] and explore other possibilities to make solar power duty-free for cold storage providers. - Kartik Shah, Coldrush Logistics

With several Indian and international groups keen to invest in the Electric Vehicle (EV) segment, the government should focus on bolstering the infrastructure to enable easy manufacturing and usage of EVs and EV-related elements such as charging kiosks to boost demand. - Greg Moran, Zoomcar

As a cloud kitchen owner, we would expect some tax relief until a certain revenue hits the sheets so that as business owners, we can show growth reflecting on the performance of the overall industry. - Manjari Singh, The Chhaunk

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The road ahead

The three areas that the government may focus on in the upcoming Union Budget 2022 includes taming inflation, manufacturing incentives, and cutting the export red tape. - Shankar Prasad, Plum

Women should be part of every police station — Dakshata Samitis — so that we can have faster redressal of complaints and build trust between police and community. - ElsaMarie D’Silva, Safecity

In the MSME sector (which employs 40 percent of the country’s workforce and contributes to 30 percent of GDP), the government should provide low-cost, long-term loans to infuse working capital and ease out the effects of the pandemic. - Deepak Jain & Sushil Pasricha, Bain & Company

We anticipate that the Union Budget 2022 will include special regulatory measures and tax breaks to aid further growth and consequently prepare the country to brave any other foreseen economic crisis. - Swati Bhargava, CashKaro

YourStory has also published the pocketbook ‘Proverbs and Quotes for Entrepreneurs: A World of Inspiration for Startups’ as a creative and motivational guide for innovators (downloadable as apps here: Apple, Android).