FM Sitharaman's fourth Budget: Boost to credit for digital infra

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has given infrastructure status to data centre and energy storage system, a move that will facilitate credit availability for digital infrastructure. 

Data centres are core to digitisation and cloud journey of enterprises. India’s data centre industry has 499 megawatt (MW) of critical information technology capacity, of which seven cities account for 490 MW. 

According to a JLL research report, the sector saw investment commitments worth $3 billion in the first six months of the current financial year.

The FM increased the outlay for the education sector to Rs 1.04 trillion for 2022-23 from Rs 93,224 crore in 2020-21, with an impetus on digital learning. 

‘One class-one TV Channel’ programme of PM eVidya will be expanded from 12 to 200 TV channels.  

“Budget 2022 is focused on providing India with a strong foundation for the techade and establishing it as a global hub in terms of technology innovation. There were certain points left unaddressed, such as additional focus on industry-led R&D in emerging technologies...,” said a statement from IT services and stratup industry body Nasscom. 

The FM said to encourage sunrise sectors such as climate change, agri-tech, deep-tech, digital economy, etc., the government will promote thematic funds for blended finance with government share limited to 20 per cent.  

For the first time, the Union Budget mentioned the gaming industry. 

Sitharaman said a promotion task force will be setup for the animation, visual effects, gaming and comics as the sector offers immense potential for employment.