AP IT industry pins high hopes on post-pandemic Budget

Visakhapatnam: With the Central govt. indicating lot of incentives under the Atma Nirbhar Abhiyan (self-reliance campaign) as part of Make in India and Digital India initiatives, the Union Budget to be presented on February 1 has raised a lot of hopes in the IT community.

Posed with a stiff challenge ahead in the aftermath of Covid-19 pandemic mainly due to popularisation of digital platforms and microblogging sites, the IT sector expects a slew of incentives in the form of cut in taxes like GST.

Domain experts whom Bizz Buzz contacted said they are hopeful of getting a stimulus package particularly to the startups involved in healthcare, pharma and new age technologies like Internet of Things (IoT), cloud computing, machine learning, artificial intelligence, analytics and cyber security so as to ensure better handholding and strengthening of existing ecosystem.

IT Association of Andhra Pradesh (ITAAP) president Sridhar Kosaraju said a fresh scheme or re-launch of India BPO Promotion Scheme (IBPS) is expected by them. He said IBPS implemented by the Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) has become a bighit in making India the most preferred destination for IT and ITES units mostly by the small and medium entrepreneurs.

AP IT has bagged maximum number of seats in India under IBPS. Already 10,000 jobs have been created in the last two and half years with the scheme. He said the country needed similar mechanisms for core IT and product-based IT companies too.