IANS | 01 Feb, 2024
The Rs 1 lakh crore corpus to provide long-term, interest-free
financing for the youth in the technology sector is a positive measure
as access to capital is a critical factor to support innovation and
growth in sunrise industries like manufacturing, industry leaders said
on Thursday.
Presenting the Interim Budget in the Lok Sabha, Finance Minister
Nirmala Sitharaman said that this corpus will provide "long-term low or
nil interest rates so that the youth can innovate at scale".
“For
our tech-savvy youth, this will be a golden era. A corpus of Rs 1 lakh
crore will be established with a 50-year interest free loan. The corpus
will provide long-term financing or refinancing with long tenors and low
or nil interest rates,” said the finance minister.
This will
encourage the private sector to scale up research and innovation
significantly in sunrise domains. “We need to have programmes that
combine the powers of our youth and technology,” she said.
Lt Gen
Dr SP Kochhar, Director General, Cellular Operators Association of India
(COAI), said that the long-term, interest-free or low interest rate
loans and focus on deep tech will “further encourage the private sector
to scale up research and innovation”.
Ankur Bansal, Co-Founder and
Director, BlackSoil Capital, said the move will encourage
entrepreneurship. “In addition, such initiatives will attract investment
from the private sector and foreign investors, driving growth and
propelling India towards self-reliance,” said Bansal.
According to
the government, the priority is to provide ample training and empower
the Indian MSMEs to compete globally and to meet their needs.
The finance minister said that a new scheme will be launched to strengthen the deep-tech sector for defence purposes.
Peeyush
Vaish, Partner and TMT Industry Leader, Deloitte India, said that the
large interest free outlay will further boost our tech start-up
ecosystem in emerging areas around 5G, generative AI, Agritech and
health tech.
“The Rs 1 lakh crore corpus that will be made
available with 50-year interest-free (long-term financing or
refinancing) to encourage the private sector to scale up R&D in
Sunrise domain is a welcome move for the sector. This will push India to
be on the forefront of innovation and skill enhancement,” said Vaish.
Neeraj
Bansal, Co-Head and COO, India Global, KPMG in India, said the corpus
will help in improving India’s research and innovation ecosystem,
critical to the country’s aspirations of being an $5 trillion economy.
