While the digital marketing community applauded the effort and intent behind the latest Union Budget, most felt that there were some glaring missed opportunities...
The Union government presented its annual budget on February 1, on an overall theme of 'Ease of Living.' The government has revised the fiscal deficit target for FY20 to 3.8 percent of GDP against the budget estimate of 3.3 percent and set a target of 3.5 percent for FY21.
The annual account statement covered almost every sector of the country and outlined the plans for growth. However, various quarters from the economy have reacted to the budget, expressing their ideas and apprehensions for the Indian economy. Leading digital marketers and media experts have expressed their mixed views and hoped for the robust growth of various sectors.
The annual account statement covered almost every sector of the country and outlined the plans for growth. However, various quarters from the economy have reacted to the budget, expressing their ideas and apprehensions for the Indian economy. Leading digital marketers and media experts have expressed their mixed views and hoped for the robust growth of various sectors.
Navin Khemka, CEO, Mediacom South Asia, the media planning agency under GroupM, opined, "What is required is more purchasing power to the Indian middle class. This will help boost demand in the sluggish economy. I hope the investment in infrastructure and Kisan express helps in achieving this objective in the long run. Short term, however, I think this budget is the status quo. Demand growth could be sluggish and this could continue to impact media investments by corporates."
For Rajesh Ghatge, CEO, Indigo Consulting, the country was expecting bold measures to revive an excruciating slow economy, but to that extent it has disappointed.
“The street, the business and the country was expecting bold measures to revive an excruciating slow economy. To that the extent the budget has disappointed me. While the recalibration of the income tax rates is aimed to drive consumption, the measure is not enough, in absence of a rural infrastructure or a capex thrust. There was a need to broad base the growth stimulus beyond the obvious sectors that are doing well - one does not see enough concrete measures towards this. A shrinking ability of the local players in the low performing sectors to invest into modernization and digitization, will delay competitive capacity building, and their eventual competitiveness in the local and global marketplace. I anticipate this year to be slow again, unless some further measures are taken to provide a stimulus to drive gross consumption," he added.
Shrenik Gandhi, chief executive officer, and co-founder, White Rivers Media, said, "There will be views that support right and views that support left, but I strongly believe, data and digital occupied the centre piece of the budget! The fact that we moved beyond jargon war and marching towards embracing digital technology is a very strong positive move. New-age technologies, keeping data and digital at the heart of it shall lead to big reforms. Focus on IoT, Data Parks, AI shall make India a strong contender amongst the top digital economies, globally. The ambitious fiber to the home proposal shall get the next 100M in the Digital universe soon. All in all, it’s a very positive budget for digital by the government which has always vouched for the power of digital. The same coupled with reduced tax slabs and abolition of DDT shall lead to higher disposable income; thus enabling more consumption."
For Bharat Khatri, country lead, Xaxis India, GroupM’s programmatic arm, this budget tried to accommodate expectation of various groups, however, according to him, the new income tax slabs regime looks like more of a jugglery of tax slabs and will end up bringing more tax burden for individuals, as one has to forego key exemptions like HRA, LTA, health insurance and more to avail new slabs.
"The first budget of this new brave decade continues to focus on digital infrastructure- BharatNet project getting additional Rs 6000 crores funds to boost digital connectivity and allowing the private sector to build data centers in India is a great move which reflects government’s clear vision to transform India into digitally empowered society. And as Sitharaman clearly pointed out that India has already started seeing innovations in the space of IoT, AI, data cloud, quantum computing, etc. are all rewriting the world economic orders & will also disrupt the established conventional business models in India. To support these innovation & disruptions the budget also lays down a visionary roadmap on skill & education development by providing Rs 99,300 crores to boost the quality of education & proposed to start degree level full-fledged online education programs," he added.
For Rajesh Ghatge, CEO, Indigo Consulting, the country was expecting bold measures to revive an excruciating slow economy, but to that extent it has disappointed.
“The street, the business and the country was expecting bold measures to revive an excruciating slow economy. To that the extent the budget has disappointed me. While the recalibration of the income tax rates is aimed to drive consumption, the measure is not enough, in absence of a rural infrastructure or a capex thrust. There was a need to broad base the growth stimulus beyond the obvious sectors that are doing well - one does not see enough concrete measures towards this. A shrinking ability of the local players in the low performing sectors to invest into modernization and digitization, will delay competitive capacity building, and their eventual competitiveness in the local and global marketplace. I anticipate this year to be slow again, unless some further measures are taken to provide a stimulus to drive gross consumption," he added.
Shrenik Gandhi, chief executive officer, and co-founder, White Rivers Media, said, "There will be views that support right and views that support left, but I strongly believe, data and digital occupied the centre piece of the budget! The fact that we moved beyond jargon war and marching towards embracing digital technology is a very strong positive move. New-age technologies, keeping data and digital at the heart of it shall lead to big reforms. Focus on IoT, Data Parks, AI shall make India a strong contender amongst the top digital economies, globally. The ambitious fiber to the home proposal shall get the next 100M in the Digital universe soon. All in all, it’s a very positive budget for digital by the government which has always vouched for the power of digital. The same coupled with reduced tax slabs and abolition of DDT shall lead to higher disposable income; thus enabling more consumption."
For Bharat Khatri, country lead, Xaxis India, GroupM’s programmatic arm, this budget tried to accommodate expectation of various groups, however, according to him, the new income tax slabs regime looks like more of a jugglery of tax slabs and will end up bringing more tax burden for individuals, as one has to forego key exemptions like HRA, LTA, health insurance and more to avail new slabs.
"The first budget of this new brave decade continues to focus on digital infrastructure- BharatNet project getting additional Rs 6000 crores funds to boost digital connectivity and allowing the private sector to build data centers in India is a great move which reflects government’s clear vision to transform India into digitally empowered society. And as Sitharaman clearly pointed out that India has already started seeing innovations in the space of IoT, AI, data cloud, quantum computing, etc. are all rewriting the world economic orders & will also disrupt the established conventional business models in India. To support these innovation & disruptions the budget also lays down a visionary roadmap on skill & education development by providing Rs 99,300 crores to boost the quality of education & proposed to start degree level full-fledged online education programs," he added.
