With the exception of exemptions for special economic zones, the Union budget was hailed by industry leaders here as a ‘progressive and forward-looking approach’ that would draw the roadmap for the future development of the country.
“We were scared how the budget would be before it was presented, but we feel great now. One area we are not comfortable with is Finance Minister Arun Jaitley not commenting on SEZs,” said Suresh Rayudu Chitturi, chairman of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) here after a tele-viewing session of the budget speech with chief executive officers of CII member companies.
Vanitha Datla, vice-chairperson of CII, said the budget touched all verticals, which were diverse in nature. It addressed areas such as skill development, connectivity, logistics and highways which were neglected in the past.
A past chairman of CII, D.V. Manohar, said it looked more like a pre-election budget rather than a post-election one. There were no ‘harsh’ measures in it and there was mention of new initiatives. The Hyderabad campus director of BITS Pilani, V. Sambasiva Rao, said the budget would give a fillip to education as it had sanctioned four All-India Institutes of Medical Sciences, five Indian Institutes of Management and Indian Institutes of Technology each, two agricultural universities, a horticultural university and a sports university.
Anil Kumar V. Epur, chairman of the sub-committee on agriculture and food processing at CII, southern region, expressed happiness that for the first time after many years, the focus had shifted to agriculture. The government realised the bottleneck in the implementation of the national rural employment guarantee programme as its outlay of Rs. 65,000 crore had failed to create assets. So, it was linked to agriculture.
The government showed it wanted to work with States to create a single agricultural market which is a good sign, according to Kapil Mehan, managing director of Coromandel India.
Varma Vagesna, managing director of Lazarus Hospitals, said it appeared that the government did not want to hurt anyone. A massive budget of Rs. 3,600 crore was allotted for the treatment of diseases.
