Business leaders hail Indian budget outlook as positive, growth-driven

Inayat-ur-Rahman, Business Editor

India announced on Wednesday one of its biggest ever increases in capital spending for the next fiscal year to create jobs but targeted a narrower fiscal deficit in its last full budget ahead of a parliamentary election due in 2024.

The non-resident Indians (NRIs) and business leaders shared their positive reactions with Gulf Today.

Dr Thumbay Moideen, founder president, Thumbay Group told Gulf Today that the overall outlook of the budget is positive and growth-driven, focusing on important sectors that will surely be the key driving force in the growth of India’s economy, and achieving the aim of $5 trillion mark by 2025. The key highlights for us have been the importance given to green growth, youth empowerment, allocation to health research and setting up of AI centers, thus making India a shining example of global hub of excellence.

Adam Abdul Nazar, Deputy CEO, Life Healthcare Group, said: The Indian Government has laid out several ambitious and admirable goals in the 2023 budget for the health of the citizens. The strong focus on research for pharmaceuticals and medical devices is welcome as it is a step in the right direction for modernizing healthcare in India. We are glad that the government understands the value of promoting the manufacturing and retail of domestic pharmaceutical and medical products. These developments can propel India’s retail pharmacy sector, transformimg the country into a global hub for pharmaceutical products. This provides a promising vision for India’s healthcare future.”

 John Varghese, Managing Partner of HLB HAMT, said: The Indian government’s efforts to simplify the tax payment process is an excellent step in the 2023 annual budget. Reducing the time, it takes to process income tax returns from 93 days to just 16 days is a fantastic improvement that will make the process more efficient and save time.

Gopinath Sabnivise, Group Director, Bridge Medical GPO, said:  We are pleased to see the future-ready approach the Indian government has taken for the healthcare industry in India with the 2023 annual budget. It is a massively positive move to place a greater focus on pharmaceutical research, as well as research on the implementation of modern healthcare practices in India. The government is aiming to build a healthcare ecosystem in the country that, over the long term, will be self-sufficient, innovative, and constantly evolving to keep up with the changing landscape of healthcare in the world.”

 Naren Vijay,  Executive VP – Growth, Lumenore, said: The government has continued focusing on Digital India and building robust digital infrastructure in the country. The announcement to set up three Centres of Excellence for artificial intelligence to enable ‘Make AI for India’ and ‘Make AI work for India’ will strengthen the adoption of AI across the various sectors like education and healthcare among others. The introduction of the National Data Governance Policy to enable access to anonymized data will improve the data management framework.

 Bharat Bhatia, Founder & CEO, Conares, said: The Indian Government’s commitment to investing in critical transport infrastructure projects is exciting. The revitalization of 50 airports and investment of INR 75,000 crore in 100 transportation projects, as well as INR 10,000 crore per year for urban infrastructure development fund is a massive boost to the construction and steel industry and is a significant step towards creating a stronger and more resilient India. This is an investment in India’s future and will drive economic growth for years to come.”

Karthik Jayaraman – Cofounder & Managing Director, WayCool Foods and Products, said: “The Union Budget 2023 has proven to showcase that the future of the Agriculture sector in the country is bright, with its well-researched, and nuanced focus towards the sector. With a highlight on inclusive development for farmers, we welcome the decision of the government to provide Digital public infrastructure for agriculture enabling an open source, open standard, and interoperable public good encompassing farmer-centric solutions.

GP Hinduja, Co-Chairman, Hinduja Group, said: This year’s growth-oriented budget with a massive investment push while maintaining fiscal discipline and devoid of any populism that is usually evident in pre-election year budgets cements India’s position as “the” investment destination with great policy stability. Focus on capacity building, capital investments, infrastructure push, friendly tax regime will certainly attract global investors.

Kamal Vachani,  Group Director & Partner, Al Maya Group, greatly welcomed the budget 2023 presented by Hon’ble Finance Minister, Ms Nirmala Sitharaman.  Kamal Vachani is Group Director & Partner, Al Maya Group, Regional Director, Electronics and Computer Software Export Promotion Council (ESC) and Chairman, Dubai & Northern Emirates of Global Organization of People of Indian Origin (GOPIO).

Kamal Vachani mentioned that the budget is a people friendly budget as Tax exemption has been increased for the income upto 7 lakhs and other tax exemption allowed.