IT industry in Hyderabad welcomes budget

The information technology sector in Hyderabad has welcomed the union budget for addressing certain operational aspects and also for its focus on investment and FDI saying this will spur general growth and thus help domestic IT consumption.

"It is a reasonably good budget for the IT industry tackling incumbent industry operational elements with enabling serious future growth.With operational aspects addressed such as transfer pricing clarification and also the note on retrospective taxes, the industry welcomes the move," said Ramesh Loganatha, president of Hyderabad Software Exporters Association (HYSEA).

"All the investment and FDI focus in the budget, will spur general growth that will definitely have an effect on domestic IT consumption; which is now about 20 percent of the IT industry revenues.

"Transfer pricing clarification is good for existing multinational companies in IT sector. This was single biggest issue the industry had. e-visas is another good provision which will encourage and enable more business travel in the IT sector," said Ramesh, who is vice president and managing director of Progress Software.

He termed Rs.10,000 crore startup fund as an amazing enabler.

"While we have to await the details in the mechanics, this will definitely spur a lot if activity in the startup space. My hope is that most of these funds should be in the seed and angel stage."

He noted that the budget has good provisions for infrastructure and hoped that these will help spur economic activity apart from enhancing the infrastructure.

"Good news for Hyderabad given the number of infrastructure companies based here. Smart cities, REIT and other infra stipulations are very encouraging apart from the extensive stipulations around the industrial corridors. This will certainly enable better projects in cities like Hyderabad," he added.

"Union finance minister presented a good budget. While there were no anticipated big reforms, the push he gave to infrastructure and housing is very welcoming. The encouragement to startups, entrepreneurship, innovation and incubation is a great initiative and is a high priority area for it will be the engine for employment generation," said B.V.R. Mohan Reddy, executive chairman, Cyient and vice chairman NASSCOM

Debasis Chatterji, CEO, Netxcell Limited said it was a good step by the finance minister with good approach. He said certain initiatives were commendable and the budget had a clear map of reducing fiscal deficit.

He said income tax relief for individual tax payers was a big relief and a tool to tackle inflation. "Initiatives for boosting the manufacturing industry and enabling a good industry network between states will have tremendous impact," he added.

Murali Bukkapatnam, president - TiE Hyderabad, said it was one of the most positive budgets for startups.

"On one side setting up of Rs. 10,000 crores VC fund will enhance the capital inflow to new startups and SMEs while on the other hand new national accelerators and incubators will boost innovation.

"Five new IITs and five new IIMs will also result in more enterprising startups mushrooming in the country. It is also encouraging to see that the government is taking steps to spread the seed of entrepreneurship beyond the urban areas by allocating Rs.100 crore for startup village entrepreneurship for rural population and Rs.14,389 crore for 'Skill India' program," said Bukkapatnam.