By Ankit Agarwal
Budget 2022 is one of the more progressive Budgets we have had in recent years. It gave India a shot in the arm to realise its digital, domestic and defence ambitions. The country is one of the challengers to the leading digital economies in the world. This Budget will help India accelerate its course towards becoming an atmanirbhar digital powerhouse.
It will help the country accelerate its digital dream by addressing the questions regarding connectivity for all through optical fibre and consistent access to digital services in 100% of the villages by 2025. Also, the plan towards better use of optical fibre will surely help the country build a robust digital infrastructure.
The government also provided its vocal support for 5G and the growth and job opportunities it will bring. Spectrum auctions in 2022 will be a great step in this direction. However, the government should ensure effective spectrum pricing to enable maximum investments in digital infrastructure. For 5G to prosper, there is a need to strengthen the country’s domestic manufacturing ecosystem. The ‘design-led manufacturing’ initiatives as a part of the PLI scheme will do exactly that and accelerate the country’s efforts towards realising the domestic dream. These combined efforts on 5G spectrum, auction, pricing and local manufacturing will enable India to have 200 million 5G subscribers by 2025.
Continuing the same spirit in defence allocations, 68% of the defence capital procurement budget for domestic players will also go a long way in strengthening the domestic hi-tech manufacturing ecosystem.
While Budget 2022 lends impetus to India’s digital aspirations, there was an opportunity to bring parity on spending between digital and physical infrastructure. From a longer-term perspective, more government investment in digital infrastructure will enable a robust digital economy. A digital-first budget philosophy should also be introduced to focus on digitalisation of each ministries’ budgetary allocations. This will lead to faster and more seamless public services in addition to enhanced connectivity. Moreover, a greater policy impetus for procedural simplification, such as single window clearances and more conducive models for private public investments, will deliver tangible results much faster.
I welcome Budget 2022 and believe the initiatives announced by the finance minister will propel India towards becoming a bigger digital economy. However, with digital adoption at the highest in the country, the time is right to speed up the process and aggressively invest in building digital infrastructure that is future-ready and can be a springboard for India to become an atmanirbhar digital superpower.
The author is Managing director, STL
