Technology and IT services were prioritised in the Budget 2022, not only in terms of integrating them into various aspects of governance for better efficiency but also in enhancing these sectors through policies and fund allocation.
In an attempt to boost this sector, the government is adding data centres to harmonising list of infrastructure, making them eligible for incentives and credit availability.
The move was well-received by the industry stakeholders as it will open up various funding channels for the sector.
“Data centres being granted the infrastructure status is a welcome news. It will help attract external commercial borrowings, access to long-tenure funds at lower costs, including foreign direct investment. With the planned roll-out of digital universities, digital banks, digital rupee through blockchain, thrust on digital payments, and OFC deployment through Bharatnet across all villages will lead to explosion of data across rural, urban areas and hence data centers are poised to play a key role in shaping the future of Digital India,” Sridhar Pinnapureddy, Founder and CEO, CtrlS Datacenters, said.
Misses
IT Industry body Nasscom said that the Budget 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 that have been left unaddressed, like – additional focus on industry led R&D in emerging technologies, enabling clarifications to allow units in SEZs flexibility to adopt hybrid work model, easing the taxation of ESOPs by making the taxation regime available to all DPIIT-recognised start-ups and taxing employees only when they sell the shares. Lack of action on enabling direct foreign listing, and tax parity between domestic and foreign investors are some other things that we believe were not included in the Budget,” Nasscom said.