Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the highly anticipated Budget 2024 today, outlining nine strategic priorities aimed at driving India’s growth. These include productivity and resilience in agriculture, employment and skilling, inclusive human resource development and social justice, manufacturing and services, urban development, energy security, infrastructure, and innovation, research and development.
Industry leaders from various fields reacted to this budget, expressing optimism, concerns and expectations about how these priorities will impact their respective domains. Read on…..
The government’s focus on MSMEs is a welcome move: Tashwinder Singh, CEO and MD, Niyogin FinTech
“The government’s focus on MSMEs, particularly through the term loan scheme with credit guarantees, is a welcome move. This will enhance the accessibility of financial resources for sectors essential to job creation. This move further encourages fintech businesses like ours to strengthen digital payment infrastructure and promote innovation that aligns perfectly with our goals of financial accessibility. However, greater clarity on regulations and tax incentives for FinTech startups would have been a positive step. Nevertheless, we remain optimistic and committed to working with our vision to make financial services more accessible, affordable, and efficient for all.”
The budget provided tech support for MSMEs : Om Narayan Singh, Founder – Digital Gramin Seva, IMOC Digital Financial Services
“The budget provided tech support for MSMEs by introducing credit guarantee schemes in which they will provide funds to the startups during their time of stress, which will eventually help the entrepreneurs grow even in their adversities. Along with this, another scheme has been announced, which is a self-financing guarantee fund. This scheme will operate on pooling the credit risks of such MSMEs. A separately constituted self-financing guarantee fund will provide each applicant with a guarantee of up to Rs 100 crore, while the loan amount may be larger.”
Today’s budget is a step forward for Indian MSME sector and renewable energy landscape : Govind Sankaranarayanan, Co-Founder and COO, Ecofy
“Today’s budget announcement by the Finance Minister is a significant step forward for both the MSME sector and the renewable energy landscape in India. The special attention given to MSMEs, including the credit guarantee scheme and term loans for machinery, is a much-needed boost for the manufacturing sector. These measures will provide the financial support necessary for MSMEs to modernise their operations, adopt new technologies, and enhance their competitiveness. The formulated package to finance technology support is especially commendable, as it will enable MSMEs to innovate and thrive in an increasingly digital economy.
