1st February is a significant day where the eyes of every business owner are glued to the screens, to understand how the union budget favours them. On 1st February 2022, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the nation’s second paperless union budget. As India is on the cusp of technological advancement, this year’s union budget proves this further. Let us understand the startup-friendly new initiatives and policies brought by the union budget 2022 for India’s startup ecosystem.
‘‘
According to a KPMG report, the gaming sector in India will become $ 3.9 billion by 2025.
New initiatives and policies introduced by the union budget 2022
Drone Shakti: The union budget has welcomed the usage of drones particularly in agriculture where the drones will play a role in crop assessment, digitisation of land records, spraying of insecticides, and nutrients. The startups will be promoted to facilitate drone-as-a-service through varied applications. In ITIs across India, the required courses for drone skilling will be undertaken. The government recognises geospatial systems and drones as the sunshine sector as they have immense potential to assist sustainable development at scale and modernise the industry and will simultaneously create employment opportunities for youth.
A boost to gaming and animation: A pause on outdoor activities in the pandemic has made individuals especially the GenZ inclination towards gaming. According to a KPMG report, the gaming sector in India will become $ 3.9 billion by 2025. The union budget this year has realised the potential in animation, visual effects, gaming, and comic sector to an open task force to build domestic capacity for serving both national and global markets.
Prioritising mental health: Recognising mental health a priority, the Finance Minister has announced a National Tele Mental Health programme to give better access to quality mental health counselling and care services. This initiative will include a network of 23 tele-mental health centres of excellence, with NIMHANS being the nodal centre and the International Institute of Information Technology-Bangalore (IIITB) providing technical support. The platform will provide counselling and care using standard, evidence-based, culturally appropriate tools and will enhance access to quality, standardised and free 24 X 7 mental health services to people. It will help to connect various mental health care services, the health, and wellness centres under Ayushman Bharat as well as with the e-Sanjeevani system.
The battery swapping policy for EV: Finance Minister has announced to roll out a new EV policy on battery swapping with interoperability standards. With this new battery swapping policy owners of electric vehicles will be able to exchange their drained batteries with charged ones at designated stations easing the use of such vehicles and reducing the time to charge. Due to the space constraints in urban areas for setting up charging stations, a battery swapping policy is introduced that will encourage several businesses and startups in the private sector to come up with innovative business models for ‘ battery or energy as a service. This policy will help in managing the space for the expansion of EV charging infrastructure.
This year the union budget has focused on sunrise sectors and has introduced supportive policies for AI, Geospatial Systems and Drones, Genomics and Pharmaceuticals, etc. which will aid in sustainable development at a larger scale. Also, a tax holiday for a year will be helpful for upcoming startups and will provide a much-needed boost.
