IAMAI welcomes technology thrust on budget

NEW DELHI: The Internet & Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) has welcomed the budgetary announcements made by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in Lok Sabha today.

Reacting to the budget, Dr. Subho Ray, President, IAMAI said “The focus on leveraging technology to streamline distribution and the proposed steps for ease of doing business in India are indicative of the government’s resolve towards Digital India and supporting entreneurship.”

The association has said that the proposal for Amendment of Companies Act to register Startups in one day is a welcome move, and is a step towards ease of doing business in India. This has been a long standing demand of the association, representing the digital industry in India.

IAMAI has also welcomed Finance Minister Jaitley’s announcement of 100 percent tax deduction programme for three years over a period of five years for startups approved before FY2019 under the Startup India scheme. This move is a step towards providing incentives to startups in the form of better incubation, talent and capital.

The association also has welcomed the proposal to set up a dedicated e-marketing platform for agriculture and hopes that the innovation of the digital industry will be harnessed for this.

The association has also welcomed move to expand the digital literacy scheme in rural India and setting up of a Higher Education Financing Agency. The twin move will support the increased manpower requirement for the ICT sector from a larger catchment area and will certainly boost employment generation.

The association however said that in its pre-budget recommendation, it had suggested for waiver of capital gains tax waiver for VC funds, to bring them at par with stock markets but is disappointed that the long standing demand of the industry is not met. This would have further boosted the startup ecosystem in India.