New Delhi From digital assets and payments, blockchain and artificial intelligence to drones for farmers and agricultural services, this Union Budget was full of technical terms. However, it was not all about incentives like the government has done in the last two years. Technology implementation has also been focused in this year’s budget.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced the formation of a central bank digital currency (CBDC), a move that has been in the works for some time.
PN Sudarshan, Partner and TMT Leader, Deloitte, said, “Overall, the digitization theme is being carried forward and the backbone for new investments in education, health, agriculture, banking and payments, and to streamline government procurement and payments.” There will be bone.” India.
Sitharaman also said that the government will launch a Public Private Partnership (PPP) scheme for “delivery of digital and hi-tech services” to farmers. “The use of ‘farmer drones’ will be promoted for crop evaluation, digitization of land records, spraying of pesticides, and nutrients,” he said. In addition, states will be “encouraged to revise the curriculum of agricultural universities” to facilitate organic farming and modern agriculture.
The minister also announced the creation of a fund which will be facilitated through the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) for financing startups and “rural enterprises” related to the agricultural produce value chain.
The government announced the issuance of electronic passports, or e-passports, which would use embedded chips and “futuristic technology”. These are set to start in 2022-23 and should facilitate contactless immigration.
The focus on applying the technology was not limited to commercial use cases. The Finance Minister also announced an Integrated Logistics Interface Platform (ULIP), which would be powered by an Application Programming Interface (API) to facilitate “efficient movement of goods through different modes, logistics cost and time”.
Reskilling was another focus area. According to Nitin Bansal, India’s managing director at telecom firm Ericsson, the digital ecosystem for skills and livelihood e-portal will help upskill the youth “as per the needs of the industry” and help fill the talent and skill gap in the industry .
Sitharaman also said that infrastructure status will be given to the data center industry, which serves as the backbone of most digital services.
With inputs from Moumita Deb Choudhary and Vignesh Anantraj.
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