"The budget is definitely going to be talked about for its disinvestment push in public sector companies. But leaving that, at the cost of over simplification, I see the budget investing in infrastructure and on social welfare, and for everything in between, it's more about relief in taxes, compliances and processes. For example, road, rail and port infra get a huge boost. Similarly, the "xyz for all" schemes get a push - gas for all, housing for all, health for all, skills for all, nutrition for all. For others, it's mostly about relaxation in tax compliance, tax dispute resolution, extended tax holidays, reduced operational compliances and rationalized duties intended for MSMEs.
The startup industry does feel that not much has changed for 90% of them and the old problems of ESOP and capital gains still remain, but there is also a sigh of relief that there is no new headache in this budget for them. The country has been moving towards becoming AatmaNirbhar for some time now and this budget does reflect that. While traditional right economists will be happy with the disinvestment plan, they may not completely agree with the self-reliance model, but I guess international trade hostilities and more recently COVID have demanded this structure. There have been some execution lapses in the past after the big announcements in budget, hopefully we can see more streamlining this time." – Naren Kumar, Co-Founder & CEO of IamHere, a hyperlocal communities startup incubated at NASSCOM, Bengaluru and winner of Government of India's AatmaNirbhar App Challenge.
