Every sector requires support in budget for long-term revival

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For the nation and its economy to grow from the after affects of Covid-19, it is important that all sectors receive support from the Union Budget.

Yes, the economy has been reviving and is crawling back from the downward spiral. What is important for the greater economic good is that the government revive these sectors and also grow its own fiscal resources.

In 2021, the single-point agenda for every business must be to recover, strengthen and grow itself, and able to contribute to the national agenda of general revival of economic growth overall. That is why, in the atmosphere we are in, one looks forward to budgetary- and policy-support initiatives that would help such revival across sub-sectors and beyond.

Once consumer demand begins to grow, one factor that can make that growth continuous and cyclic would be providing the population of India in the smaller areas fiscal and banking inclusivity.

The year 2020 was a year full of challenges for the fintech industry; however, it also seeded great momentum and innovation. The government must support fintech businesses that can spread greater financial inclusivity through the growing digital infrastructure and feature- and smartphone use.

Fintech and all its great conveniences and support can add value to the people and economy of India when access to banking reaches to villages and smaller towns. One hopes the budget will ease and support the creation of a commercial, regulatory and societal infrastructure framework. Decentralisation of the GST registration process would provide enormous relief, particularly because the cost of compliance and business process development have increased manifold. A centralised registration process or lower GST slab on services that support financial inclusion, plus at least some supportive budgetary allocation to the costs of such firms, would go a long way in empowering their self-sustenance, and their ability to draw greater investor attention.

The digital space has been a crucial lifeline and enabler of survival of businesses, jobs, education and retail, payments, medicare and much more for people and enterprise during the pandemic. One therefore expects, and would look forward to, strong support and incentivizing of tech businesses across crucial areas like FinTech, EdTech, MediTech, AgriTech, InsureTech and Broadcast media like Television and Radio.

Greater facilities and incentives to encourage investments into innovative and new-age technologies like Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, the use of Cloud and other digital technologies, would be critical to greater growth, security and for better user experiences that will attract ever larger numbers of the population from across the spectrum — suppliers to end-consumers and suppliers and the businesses in between. There must be an ecosystem that is enabling, without heavy-handed regulations, for an environment conducive to the survival of both, start-ups and older businesses.

Measures like these from the government would facilitate the Indian fintech ecosystem to bring about multiple positive changes for India.

(The writer is CEO, Aquapay. Views expressed are personal)