This year's budget needs to show real execution

This year's budget needs to show real execution towards the government's intent of making India an easier destination to do business and  be seen as an innovation hub.

We need to have a strong and well-structured agenda or policy for Digital India and Make in India to be a reality. For ease of doing business, we hope for the following reforms:

• Procurement Reforms: move  from the L-1/lowest cost based procurement to quality & cost based (QCBS) procurement for solutions and services.
• Single Window Clearance for all operational and statutory requirements.
• For all Digital India related projects, have single independent authority across various government departments to resolve issues like service tax refund issues, Inspection and licensing issues, duty differentials and double taxation etc.

As part of the government's innovation agenda, we hope that the budget will look at protecting existing investments made by various companies in the country in the form of manufacturing set-ups, R&D centers and innovation hubs.

 

Specifically for the hardware industry, in order to provide computing power to consumers at affordable prices, we hope extension of duty incentive schemes to all ITA goods including desktops, laptops and personal computers. As per MAIT, if the  duty differential is introduced for PCs, laptops and notebooks, players like HP, Dell, Lenovo and Acer can start effectively utilising their manufacturing facilities.(The author is Vice President, Sales and Marketing Group, Managing Director, South Asia)