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Hyderabad-based companies across sectors like healthcare, technology, wellbeing, education and startups have welcomed the Union Budget 2023-24 as growth-oriented and forward looking.

Anand Kumar, Managing Director, Indian Immunologicals Ltd, believes that some of the key announcements around the healthcare sector in the Union Budget will lead to long-term benefits.

He said making select ICMR labs available for research and development by public and private medical colleges, as well as private sector R&D teams, will play an instrumental role i healthcare facilities in the future. "By establishing centres of excellence in artificial intelligence in educational institutions, we will also encourage leveraging new-age technologies for conducting interdisciplinary research, developing cutting-edge applications, and finding scalable solutions to health-related problems," he said.

"The establishment of 157 new nursing colleges has the potential to equip the healthcare industry with a skilled workforce to manage the future requirements of the growing population in the country," he added.

Karun Tadepalli, Co-Founder & CEO, byteXL, stated that the education sector witnessed some of the announcements from a longer-term perspective. The increase of 8 per cent allocation to higher education to Rs 44,094 crore is a welcome move from the point of raising the employability quotient of students. "This will be a key component in transforming the institutes to provide better education compatible with industry needs. New age courses for Industry 4.0 like coding, AI, robotics, mechatronics, IOT, 3D printing, drones, and soft skills under Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana 4.0 will help in skilling the students for global job opportunities making them career ready. Establishing a National Digital Library will enhance the culture of eLearning across the country, which will be a positive step towards a futuristic approach," he said.

Gautam Nimmagadda, Founder & CEO, Quixy, termed the Union Budget growth-focused which provides impetus to digital India.

"The government's strides in advancing public and private digital services are a testimony to the rising global profile of the Indian technology industry. The Indian government has recorded a phenomenal improvement in the taxpayers services owing to their digital adoption, where the average processing period has been reduced drastically in the past few years," he said.

According to Gautam, the 3 centres for excellence for AI and the 100 labs for developing applications using 5G services will drive digitisation and re-ignite employment potential in the tech ecosystem. Such measures demonstrate the multiplier impact of tech on India's strides onwards. Yet another stimulus was provided for E-Courts, a novel initiative undertaken to transform the Indian Judiciary by ICT enablement of courts. He believes that a digitally-driven government will expedite a digitally-driven India.

"Furthermore, the budget recorded a strong focus on the development of MSMEs and startups, with the extension of the carry forward of losses on change of shareholding of startups to 10 years of incorporation. This measure, coupled with the establishment of the National Data Governance Policy, will boost digital innovation empowered by ease of doing business," he added.

Richa Singh, Co-Founder & CEO, YourDOST, stated that as a healthcare industry stakeholder, she has mixed feelings about the Union Budget. "Although several initiatives in the budget are laudable and oriented towards the vision of accelerating holistic growth, it does not hold a similar promise to the wellbeing industry," she said.

She observed that while the establishment of nursing colleges sits on major potential for skilling the next generation of medical professionals, a similar commitment to the wellbeing industry has been overlooked. The previous budget justly recognised the growing significance of mental health today. Building on that momentum, additional incentives in the sphere would have accelerated the due importance that mental health and wellbeing deserves today, she added.

Gusti Noria, President, The Hyderabad Public School Society, termed it an overall a good consolidation budget. "It is a good step by the Finance Minister to increase allocation for school education by 8 per cent i.e. from Rs 63,449 crore (Budget Estimate) in 2022-23 to Rs 68,804 crore in 2023-24. The emphasis on establishing CoEs for artificial intelligence and also teachers' training being revisited for better pedagogy and raising quality education, is a welcome step. The establishment of District Training Centres for educators along with the National Digital Library is yet another initiative that will be a boost for both public and private school education. The Skill India International Centres that are going to be set up across states will provide the right digital ecosystem for skilling and help foster national apprenticeship."

Dr. V. Ramakantha, Director of Heartfulness Institute on Sustainability initiatives in forestation, cultivation and millets, and Ex Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, stated that the Budget laid emphasis on coarse grains or millets for sustainable cultivation. "It is very welcome given that it is aimed at raising the income levels of the farmers in arid regions. 2023 has also been recognised as the International Year of Millets by the United Nations at the request of India. It goes to show a level of rising awareness on the health benefits and consumption of millets. The 2023-24 Union Budget's focus on millets will involve making India a global hub for millets and associated research and establishing the Indian Institute of Millet Research (IIMR) in Hyderabad as a centre of excellence for millets."

Heartfulness had joined hands with IIMR to establish an Experience Centre for Millets at Heartfulness because of the enormous health benefits and low glycemic index of millets besides helping the farmers raise sustainable livelihoods in the villages in the vicinity of Kanha Shanti Vanam.

Prem Kumar Vislawath, Co-founder, Marut Drones, feels that the Budget laid focus on infrastructure spending, meeting its climate change commitments, agricultural, technology, farmers and startups, amongst others.

"With the announcement of 'Agricultural Accelerator Fund' and focus on bringing technology to agriculture it will promote agricultural startups in the country and benefit the drone industry that is working on making agriculture more sustainable, cost effective, efficient and increase the yield for the farmers. We really hope this fund will be beneficial to us like the Drone Shakti Initiative which was rolled out during budget 2022," he said.

"We are positive that it will bring in modern technology to transform age-old agricultural practices and will encourage more youth to adopt farming. We think the initiative's idea is to offer innovative and affordable solutions to present day farmers where our Marut drone rightly fits in, and with the reduction of import duty on batteries we will be benefited to manufacture more affordable drones to empower the farmers," he added.