Telecom Lead India: The government’s focus this year
on enabling faster, sustainable and more inclusive growth through the
twelfth five year plan is welcome, said Naresh Wadhwa, president and
country manager, Cisco India & SAARC.
Scaling up of the Aadhar project as well as enabling it
to support PDS will greatly benefit the common man. Leveraging technology
to transfer subsidies directly to beneficiaries is definitely a positive step.
The budget lays considerable focus on infrastructure and
rural development. The increased infrastructure spending at Rs 50 lakh crore,
Rs 10,000 crore allocated to NABARD for refinancing regional rural banks and
the plan to set up ultra small branches under the ‘Swabhiman’ campaign is
encouraging.
Quality healthcare is a crying need so it’s good to see
the NHRM provision being increased from 18,115 crore to 20,822 crore. Measures
to boost both basic education as well as skill development initiatives through
an allocation of Rs 1000 crore for National Skill Development Corporation is
laudable too.
On the industry front, setting up Rs 5,000 crore venture
fund for MSME sector is a welcome move, given that SMEs employ a sizeable
population. We are also hoping that the GST roll out is on track for August this
year,” Wadhwa added.
Overall, it is heartening to see that the budget
addresses some key areas like education, healthcare and infrastructure which
are critical to national growth and development.
India telecom budget recommendations from Naresh Wadhwa,
president, Cisco India
Empowering rural India is of utmost importance and the
government needs to do so by provisioning for broadband penetration and
financial inclusion. In fact, according to Indian Council for Research on
International Economic Relations, for every 10 per cent increase in Internet
and broadband connections, India could contribute up to $17 billion to the GDP.
