India’s first woman Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is set to present this year’s Union Budget on July 5. This apparently would be her first major assignment ever since her appointment to finance ministry.

As usual, the government is expected to come out with fresh policies and amendments to existing schemes, impacting farmers to middle class, entrepreneurs, professionals and corporates.

Like most other sectors, we are extremely confident of a strong IT budget this year too. More so, with its blueprint drafted on threshold of a new-look yet stable Modi government.

GST cutback, IT research and new-age technology including AI are what we are counting on from the budget endowments. Start-ups, micro businesses and SMBs of our scale are very hopeful of being incentivised to secure a near to strong holding in highly competitive IT battleground.

Insufficiency of funds, running capital, lack of IT research, manpower cost and a weak business model still remain the struggling areas for start-ups worldwide. This invariably is the prime reason why most start-ups and small scale set-ups shut down in the initial years of inception.

Having experienced the cross-geo technology market for over a decade, we believe there is no dearth of business across global markets. Most IT businesses focus on North American shores to gather clients.

Even for small players, IT projects continue to exist. However, buyers are looking for far more than hiring web developers and testers.

Nine out of 10 buyers look for expertise in AI, RPA, smart security, digitalisation, blockchain and big data these days, a trend we feel, would remain unchanged at least for the next few years.

The point I’m trying to make here is that IT enterprises are better equipped to attract these buyers which is primarily due to infrastructural and cost advantage on their side. This is one area where start-ups and small businesses in our segment fail to compete.

Like Ebizon, thousands of IT companies across the country are trusting the Modi government to present a well-laid IT budget this year. We are hopeful that a strong budget will help us contribute to the country's digital success.

While we expect the budget to deliver on these lines, we understand we’ll have to wait until July 5 to see how much it promises on the technology front.

GST rebates on software services and easing of existing IT policy have always been on our wish list. Not only we foresee it to impact the number of clients but more start-ups and mid-sized IT setups will have an opportunity to invest back in their ventures.

Tax deduction under section 35(2AB) if unrolled to include IT research and automation development, would be a welcome step.

As more IT clients look forward to AI and smart applications, start-ups are exploring to build product portfolios around these. Sitharaman has already assured a substantial investment in a dedicated centre for Artificial Intelligence and AI hubs in her pre-budget parliamentary speech.

We also expect to see yielding measures from the government enabling us to secure vendorship listing and IT partnership in government projects. This is something that we have been missing for years now.

A lot is expected of government-assisted IT policies too. Introduction of such policies will encourage us to experiment with next generation technology. Such a move will also see the start-up success rate going up by a few notches.

It’s easy to relate with everyday challenges faced by start-ups and small ventures, especially as we are a couple of steps down the IT road.

The Modi government has already labelled the new term the time to leverage the digital foundation that was set during the last five years.

The ‘Digital India’ campaign not only marked the beginning of a universal digital literacy programme but also generated sustained demand of stable and secure digital infrastructure.

High-speed internet and growing mobile access in the recent years have reinforced IT companies to come up with innovative and easy products, empowering people to get used to smart technology.

While the technology companies have already started delivering, a strong backing in the form of policy support and conducive IT environment by the government would prove significant.

As India inches closer to General Budget 2019, we stay full of optimism. What it brings to the table is largely going to define how easy the road will be for Indian IT, and especially to economic recovery.

Vibhav Gaur is a first-generation entrepreneur, currently Chief Business Officer at Ebizon, a mid-sized software company focused on Digitalisation, AI and Cloud Computing.

First Published:Jul 4, 2019 6:00 AM IST