New Delhi | Mukul Sharma: The growth of Indian IT industry at the back of massive demand of digital services is expected to touch the heights that were considered far-fetched not too long ago. According to a McKinsey and Company report released last year, the Information Technology industry in India is likely to touch a mark between $300 to $350 billion in the coming five years with a growth rate of 10 per cent per year, up for 7.5 per cent that was recorded in last five years till 2021.
Amid these glowing forecasts, the tech sector is expecting much beyond the usual from upcoming Union Budget scheduled to release on February 1 in the budget session of parliament. While many tech players that Jagran English reached out to concede that pandemic accelerated the growth of IT industry, they add that a lot more can be done by easing out compliance processes to harness the full sectoral potential of India's Information Technology landscape.
‘Tax benefits to legitimise ‘WFH’ working model’
N. Venkatraman, Managing Director and CFO of Bangalore-based Happiest Minds Technologies, while pointing out the specific asks from Finance Minister in the upcoming Union Budget, told Jagran English that government should work towards simplification of 'ESOP (Employee Stock Ownership Plan) taxation'.
“Tax benefits to individuals should be tweaked to give benefits for ‘Work From Home’. Such a change will provide legitimacy to the changed working model,” Venkataraman further told Jagran English. Venkataraman, while further emphasising on the need for increased governmental spending to continue the digitisation of economy, also expected ‘simplification of processes under FEMA for Indian organizations to establish overseas operations, acquisitions, etc’.
‘Pursue cyber security from the lens of Digital India objectives’
Trishneet Arora, Founder and CEO of cybersecurity firm TAC Security says that the government in the upcoming budget can drive the growth of IT Sector by ‘pursuing cyber security through the lens of Digital India objectives’.
“With India establishing itself as a case study for the world to follow basis the country’s fintech services success, it is now required that we provide a secured mechanism to safeguard this precious digital infrastructure that the country has rapidly built,” Trishneet told Jagran English. ‘Pandemic a game changer, IT sector’s growth to continue’
As dependence on digital infrastructure reached unprecedented proportions after COVID-19 became a pandemic in mid-March 2020, the IT sector catered to an all-time high demand for digital services. It’s because of such proportion of surge in demand that the sector is expected to see above 10 per cent growth in the coming five years.
“Despite the third wave and the sudden rise of Covid cases, the economy continues to grow and the timing of the budget couldn’t have been more appropriate. The growth in the IT industry will continue to accelerate, based on the terms of tax rules, reduction of indirect taxes for the companies. I also expect for the industry's ease of doing business, a new simplified compliance model will do wonders,” Abhishek Rungta, Founder and CEO of Kolkata-based INT. (Indus Net Technologies) told Jagran English.
However, N. Venkatraman of Happiest Minds Technologies pointed out that pandemic rather acted as a game changer for the growth trajectory of the industry.
“The pandemic has rather turned as a game-changer for most of the tech industry. There is a surge in demand for digital services and as a company that is born to be digital and we are strongly placed to en-cash on the exponential opportunities and convert it into accelerated growth,” N Venkatraman said. The sentiment is seconded by Trishneet Arora, Founder and CEO of cybersecurity firm TAC Security.
“The pandemic times have accelerated the adoption of cybersecurity related technologies by corporates who have shifted to WFH mode and now want their digital assets to be safeguarded. Cloudsec and data products play has further complemented the uptake for such services. We are strongly placed to encash the situation basis our unique capabilities revolved around ESOF (Employee Stock Ownership Fund) and commit to make the right investments to carry forward this momentum for years to come,” Trishneet told Jagran English.
Posted By: Mukul Sharma
