Technology industry cheers Budget's focus on AI, ML; asks for revival of SEZ policy

The technology industry has cheered the Union Budget 2020's thrust on the technology sector applauding various announcements including the Rs. While presenting the Union Budget, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that technology, will be used for better monitoring of the economic data, building a preventive regime for diseases under Ayushman Bharat, capturing and protection of intellectual property rights, improving agriculture and sea-ports and delivery of government services. A new scheme for incentivising domestic manufacturing of electronics specifically mobile phones will also be announced, she added. Debjani Ghosh, President, NASSCOM said, "Budget 2020 and the finance minister's speech has well-articulated India's vision on not just being a leading provider of digital solutions, but one where technology is the bedrock of development and growth'. Nasscom welcomed the announcements on Quantum Computing, Data Center policy, IPR portal, CoE etc, along with the removal of Dividend Distribution Tax which was a long pending demand from the industry. It, however said that the Budget lacked focus on accelerating service exports from the country. "The technology services sector has been a key contributor to India's exports and GDP, NASSCOM had recommended that new investments by services companies in SEZs should also be eligible for the lower rate of 15%.