Budget 2024: Sitharaman Lays Roadmap For Viksit Bharat, Say Experts

The budget announcements by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman lays the roadmap for 'Viksit Bharat', or developed nation, by 2047 with focus on sustained efforts across nine key development priorities, experts said on Wednesday.

The nine priorities set out in the Budget are -- productivity and resilience in agriculture; employment & skilling; inclusive human resource development and social justice; manufacturing & services; urban development; energy security; infrastructure; innovation, research & development; and next generation reforms.

"The Union Budget 2024-25, presented by the Finance Minister, dimensions out the path the government would chart in its third term. The Budget seeks to present a detailed roadmap for India's pursuit of 'Viksit Bharat' -- envisioning a prosperous and inclusive India by 2047," PwC India said in a report on the Budget.

NSN Murty, Partner, Government & Public Services Consulting Leader, Deloitte India, said India is successfully dealing with the complexity and scale of 'needs' and 'wants' of 1.4 billion using digital public infrastructure.

"However, we need to redouble our efforts towards enabling justice and credit for all. Resolving disputes in India today takes six times longer than in other OECD countries and that needs to change for our shared vision of 'Viksit Bharat'," Murty said.

Meanwhile, ICRA Chief Economist Aditi Nayar said the modest hikes in rural-focused schemes would boost rural sentiment, which has been feeble since last year's unfavourable monsoon.

"Regardless, a sustained pickup in rural demand is likely only after the kharif harvest hits the markets," she said.

The rural development ministry has been allocated Rs 1,77,566.19 crore, around 12% increase from the Rs 1,57,545 crore outlay for the last financial year.

Sudhir Mathur, founder & CEO, Meradoc Healthtech, said the budget proposals hold the potential to further invigorate the Indian business environment.

"The move to abolish angel tax for all investor classes is welcome, a strong step to build a robust ecosystem... with the abolishment of the angel tax, we are confident of increased investments again in Indian business innovation and startups in areas such as healthcare, mental well-being and education," Mathur added.

Durgesh Pandey, CFO, Web Werks -- Iron, Mountain Data Centres -- said the Budget 2024-25 highlights the continued strong push towards digitisation across sectors and infrastructure development.

"This will further provide fillip to the data centre industry... The government continued focus on energy transition to renewable share is evident from the fact that it has announced expansion of the list of exempted capital goods for solar sector and also initiatives for pumped storage to improved reliability and which can be cost effective too," Pandey said.

Govind Rammurthy, CEO and managing director of eScan, said the budget reflects the government's strong commitment to fostering economic growth, with a clear focus on infrastructure development, boosting consumption, and promoting domestic manufacturing.

"The budget also emphasises women's empowerment, with new schemes for housing and entrepreneurship, and aims to drive technological advancements through R&D incentives for emerging technologies like AI and the Internet of Things (IoT)," Rammurthy added.

Annapurna Swadisht MD Shreeram Bagla said Sitharaman's Budget has identified the need to promote productivity and resilience in agriculture as one of the key pillars to achieve 'Viksit Bharat'.

The government has allocated Rs 1.52 lakh crore to agriculture and allied activities in budget 2024-25 as against Rs 1.40 lakh crore in 2023-24, an increase of 8.57%, he said.

"Further, it has emphasised the need to focus on raising productivity and developing a climate resilient variety of crops, both of which will go a long way in boosting farmer's income, thereby spurring rural consumption and demand," Bagla said.

RupeeQ Managing Director Neeru Puri said, "Fintech startups received robust support with Rs 5,000 crore allocated to the fintech startup fund, alongside tax holidays and simplified regulatory frameworks benefiting over 2,500 startups."

Cybersecurity receives a Rs 3,000 crore investment to safeguard against fraud, and data protection laws are strengthened with a Rs 1,500 crore budget, Puri added.

Gaurav Jalan, Founder & CEO mPokket, said be it the youth, women, MSMEs, startups, employment or other key aspects, the budget has generated a feel-good factor by announcing measures that benefit most stakeholders in some way or the other.

"The recommendation to create a new assessment model for MSME credit-based on their turnover and assets is another good move. As MSMEs face an estimated funding shortfall of Rs 20-25 lakh crore, these measures could help improve liquidity in the industry," Jalan added.

Vijay Kaushik, founder, chairman and managing director, Vibhor Steel Tubes, said the government has given a major boost to infrastructure development.

"The focus on rural development, including rural infrastructure, will lead to better roads and connectivity and improving access to rural hinterlands, which will go a long way in improving the distribution and thereby increase sales for companies particularly in the under penetrated rural and semi-urban markets," Kaushik said.

Safex Chemicals Founder-Director S K Chaudhary said the introduction of the National Cooperation Policy promises a structured and inclusive development of the cooperative sector.

"The release of 109 new high-yielding and climate-resilient crop varieties is a testament to the government's foresight in fortifying our food security amidst changing climatic conditions," Chaudhary said.