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There were two major announcements for tech and telecom industry in the budget speech of Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. First, she said that spectrum auctions will be conducted this year to roll out 5G services within FY2022-23 in India. She also announced inclusion of the design led initiatives for 5G and other technologies in production linked incentive (PLI) scheme. Second, the budget has proposed customs duty changes on components of mobile phone chargers, camera lens of mobile phones and other parts of electronics devices including hearables and wearables, in order to boost domestic manufacturing in India. Here’s what industry and experts have to say on this development. A Gururaj, MD, Optiemus Electronics “The industry has been completely galvanized under the pioneering initiative of PLI scheme, with Hon'ble FM today stating that it has potential to create 60 lakh new jobs and additional production of 30 lakh crores. This is also a clarion call to the industry to work much harder in the years to come to make it a reality. On a macro level, the scheme around design-led manufacturing as part of the PLI scheme would fasten the development of the ecosystem, and also changes in customs duty will drive greater domestic value addition in electronics manufacturing in the country, which has grown rapidly in the last few years.” Arvind Bali, CEO, Telecom Sector Skill Council “The telecom sector announcement of spectrum auction in 2022 for the rollout of 5G and Scheme for design-led manufacturing for 5G ecosystem is likely to uplift human resource requirements significantly and also need to train the existing and new workforce. Rural OFC in villages through BharatNet is also a great opportunity for Skilling the rural youth. We are proud to be part of Skilling under KAVACH and also connecting our Telcojob portal with ASEEM. TSSC is constantly adapting to the changing dynamics and looking forward to contributing to telecom industry developments.” Manish Sharma, CEO, Panasonic India “In my experience with the current regime, policy conversations are not limited to Budget day but take place through the year. So we are hoping for discussions on how exports can be further incentivized and policy can be enhanced for design-led local manufacturing. From an electronics sector standpoint, we expected reforms in the Union Budget FY 2022 - 23 that would accelerate growth channelized by consumer demand. For instance, rationalizing the GST from 28% to 18% on ACs and large screen size (>105cm) TVs will improve affordability and penetration as these are no longer considered luxury items. We will look forward to hearing from the GST Committee on this.” Also Read: Union Budget 2022: India to hold 5G spectrum auctions this year Vijay Kumar Mikkilineni, Head - Marketing, TCL India “We welcome the Finance Minister's increased focus on the consumer electronics industry and formation technology, which will definitely benefit all worldwide companies, including ours. The 2022 Union Budget allocated 1.97 lakh crore ($26 billion) for PLI projects, notably electronics components, which are among the 13 vital sectors that would undoubtedly help our economy expand. Furthermore, reduced customs taxes will encourage electronics manufacturing, which will benefit the electronics industry.” Arnav Mutneja, Director, Quantum Hi-Tech “The budget seems to create a level playing field for existing and upcoming brands in the market with a push towards creating domestic manufacturing capabilities. The move to calibrate tax structure for items like consumer electronics is a very novel move given the pandemic situation, as it will enable manufacturers to provide more and more lifestyle devices with advanced capabilities. The budget has given a balanced outlook of the economy in the years to come and we hope that the stress on the economy by COVID can be mitigated by this approach in a gradual but concrete manner.” Achin Gupta, Country Head-India, ZOOOK “The push towards manufacturing is a positive move to make India self-reliant and at the same time, the calibrated duty tax has put a 5% extra burden on importers. This move is in itself an indication of the government's plan for India@100, where basic consumer electronics would be manufactured in India. The recent surge in the country's wearables market is an indicator of success in the current scenario and the government too is targeting increased domestic manufacturing of wearable, hearable, and high growth electronic items.” Arnav Kishore, Co-founder, Fire-Boltt “It is a welcome announcement by the Finance Minister to focus on the domestic wearable market and boost domestic manufacturing of such devices. This is in sync with the record growth registered recently by homegrown brands in the Indian wearable market, and would further encourage more Indian brands to come up with innovative offerings in the segment. We also welcome the decision to extend tax benefits for startups and the fact that startups are being considered the drivers of the Indian economy's growth.” Vikas Jain, Co-founder and CEO, World of Play "We support the government's focus on technology, it will help many tech based companies like World of Play to come up with exciting product experience for the Indian consumers. We welcome the focus of government on the wearables and acoustic component ecosystem and domestic manufacturing and believe on a long term, this focus will make India as a formidable design and manufacturing powerhouse. Additionally, the boost in ease of doing business and special impetus on creating 60 lakh new jobs will give a desired push to the goal of becoming AtmaNirbhar Bharat. As a brand, we promote and follow Make in India and we believe long-term policies like this will give us the desired support for the local design and also manufacturing in India." Archit Agarwal, Co-founder, Crossbeats “The push to the manufacturing industry is a strategic move to reduce the dependence on imports and upgrade the capabilities of Indian manufacturers to meet the needs internally. It was nice to hear that the growth in the wearable market has been recognized by the government and custom duty calibration should bring more opportunities for domestic brands to provide unique options to the masses.” Navkendar Singh, Research Director, Client Devices & IPDS, IDC India “While we await specific details on quantum on duty concessions, this is a welcome step. Wearables are seeing stratospheric growth in demand and shall continue to do so in India. As consumers mature into using more tech, other complementary devices like wearables will see growth. Making India competitive in its manufacturing to meet local demand as well as position India as a manufacturing and export hub for such devices is a good initiative.” Alok Dubey, CFO, Acer India “With government infrastructure spending push, we are likely to see more employment and growth opportunities and enhanced private sector investment in manufacturing. We are confident that the exemption of duty on parts of select electronic items will further boost the domestic manufacturing of electronics goods under the PLI scheme. Overall, the Union Budget 2022-23 is a promising budget and a step forward towards AatmaNirbhar Bharat.” Kunal Sarkar, Vice President, PredictiVu “The government’s continued efforts to promote domestic manufacturing of mobile phones are highly appreciated. As part of the government’s ambitious Make in India and AatamNirbhar Bharat initiative, a reduction in duty concessions on smartphone parts has been introduced in Union Budget 2022. It will further boost local production, lower the compliance burden, and alleviate the semiconductor shortage that will further provide a level playing field to the manufacturing players and enable them to compete with global players. A rise in demand has resulted in increased localization of smartphones, enabling these brands to improve supply chain efficiencies and shorter their time to market. Budget allocations to R&D and innovations are commendable. The rollout of 5G mobile services would be another big boost for the Indian mobile phones market.” Rakesh Deshmukh, Co-founder and CEO, Indus OS “At Indus App Bazaar, in 2021 we saw a significant rise in the usage of apps in regional languages. While the National language translation mission helps with making knowledge text more readily available. We have been assisting Indians onboard the digital economy. We believe that the Government should widen the scope of Make in India smartphone initiative to include software solutions to help local players innovate.” Also Read: Union Budget 2022: Concessions in customs duty to boost domestic electronics manufacturing

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Union Budget 2022: Here’s what Industry has to say