Effective implementation of Budget will be key: Rajesh Agarwal, Micromax

"This Budget intended to bring in a lot of optimism and I think the government has clearly defined its intention to revive the rural economy with spending on key areas demarcated, including the skill based education, healthcare, housing and infrastructure development which will definitely generate income in the rural areas.

The focus on digitisation and reforms on restricting cash spending is an important step towards making India a digital economy. Smartphones play a very crucial role in enabling digital payments and Micromax feels this they will be able to facilitate and contribute to this strategic national initiative in a big way through their wide range of phones and the customer reach they enjoy through their distribution network. Also, we feel that there will be a specific focus on the low and mid-price smartphones capturing a fair share of the market.

I think there were some corrective measures that were announced such as tax sops for SMEs and MSMEs, which will be a welcome gesture for that segment. Boosting more demand and upbringing rural economy will further give rise to public spending, which will show results in the long run.

I think that the Rs 10 lakh crore credit announced for farmers is the probably the highest amount which has been provisioned in this budget and some of the other funds announced will benefit the farmers further and we are hopeful that it create rural jobs as well. There was a bold decision on electoral funding and that is commendable. We feel that the infrastructure spending including airports, railways and highways will generate employment and boost spending.

The government has also acknowledged the need to bring down lending rates to ensure cheaper funds for both industry as well as consumers and we hope GST will be able to address that. It is heartening is that the government has announced multiple measures which can improve local manufacturing and create a better component ecosystem for mobile handset makers. The allocation of Rs 745 crore is a welcome move, which will provide impetus to local component manufacturing in the electronics sector.

‘Make in India’ is a great opportunity given India has attracted huge investments in local manufacturing lately not only benefitting the economic growth but also creating increased employment. The investment of Rs 10,000 crore towards that aim will definitely be beneficial to further grow local manufacturing. At Micromax, we are committed to support the ‘Make in India’ initiative and invest accordingly.

With focus on growth, it is a progressive budget and is a stepping stone to India’s growth story. The delivery however will be contingent on effective implementation of these policies.”

Rajesh Agarwal, Co-Founder, Micromax Informatics

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