The
Union Budget 2016-17 has given a big boost to the Digital India vision of the
Prime Minister. The announcements made by Finance Minister, which are expected
to give a big boost to Digital India initiatives, Digital literacy, greater
application of Cloud and above all big push to the Electronics
Manufacturing are appreciable steps. The Finance Minister has also focused
upon the larger involvement of post office platform for financial
inclusion, including delivery of services.
Giving
details of certain provisions made in the Budget relating to his ministry, the
Minister for Communications and Information Technology Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad
said that some profound changes, which happened in
the last 20 months include:- .
1. IT
/ ITeS exports have crossed USD 100 billion.
2.
India’s share in global IT services outsourcing presently is 56 %, is
growing every year.
3.
The total employment in IT / ITeS sector is
37 lakhs in this financial year, out of which
the net addition is 2 lakhs.
4.
Electronics Manufacturing has seen remarkable improvement, due to
the initiatives of this government. When this government came to power, in
June 2014, the proposals worth of only Rs. 11,800 crores were received.
Now, it has risen to Rs.1,20,294 crores.
5.
Due to the initiatives taken up in the last
Budget, especially the duty rationalization, we
have noticed remarkable acceleration in the field
of Electronics manufacturing. In this connection, mobile
manufacturing presents very encouraging area. In
2014-15, the mobile units manufactured in the country
were Rs. 5.4 crores, which have more than doubled to Rs.11 crores
in 2015-16. After the duty rationalization in the last
Budget, 16 new mobile manufacturing units have been set
up in this financial year.
FURTHER NEW
INCENTIVES IN THIS BUDGET:
Electronics
Manufacturing:
Efforts
made in the previous Budgets of this
government for promoting electronic manufacturing in
India has also got encouraging boost
during this budget by
further rationalization of duty
structure. As a result of
this the domestic manufacturers
of Routers, Broadband Modems, Set-Top
Boxes, Digital Video Recorders, Network Video Recorders, CCTV
Camera, Lithium- Ion Battery would enjoy
duty advantage of 8.5% vis-a-vis
imported goods. Domestic value addition in
mobile phone phones, battery, wired
headsets/speakers would enjoy a duty
advantage of 10.5% vis-a-vis imported goods. This
will also encourage domestic
manufacturing of components. Domestic manufacturing of routers
and broadband modems will further encourage
manufacturing of telecom
equipments.
In
the IT/ITeS (IT Enabled Services) sector, sunset
date for Section 10AAof the Income Tax Act allowing tax benefits
for IT units in SEZs has been extended from 2017 till
2020. This will enable technology units to set up and
commence operations in SEZs.
A
very significant incentive is the
extension of Section 80 JJAA to
Income Tax Act for skill development to
services companies as well. This will permit 30 % of
additional wages paid to new workmen, deductible for 3 years. This
will give a big boost to
the BPO operations, which this
government is pushing-in a big way.
Encouragement to
Digital Literacy & Digital Lockers:
Shri Prasad
said that he is happy to
note that the
Finance Minister has provided for creation of
Digital depository of school leaving certificates, college degrees and
mark-sheets. This would enhance the
footprint of cloud technology in the Country. The IT
department has already laid down the
framework for cloud technology and will assist in
the expansion.
The Budget
has given extraordinary expansion to Digital Literacy
in the country, consisting of
imparting digital literacy to 6 crore
households in next 3 years. The IT department was
keenly pushing for this expansion. As of now, against the target of 52.5
lakhs, more than 40 lakhs have been trained.
Use of
Aadhar platform for delivery of
services
The Finance
Minister himself, has announced in the budget, that
government will now be moving a legislation to
give a statutory backing to Aadhar,
for delivery of services
/ subsidies / benefits,
corning out of Consolidated
Fund of India. This will prevent
leakages by identifying the beneficiaries correctly and would encourage good
governance.
The Minister
is assured to note that in the budget speech, Finance
Minister has laid great stress on the use
of digital platform across various departments. This will further
encourage consolidation of seminal programmed of Digital India
Telecommunication:
FDI
equity inflow in telecom Sector has touched a new high during FY 2014-15,
which is $2895 million which is 80%
more than the FDI equity
inflow received during 2012-13 ($304 million) and
FY 2013-14 ($ 1307 million) put together.
- STATUS
OF NOFN (BharatNet) as on 29.02.2016
- End
June 2014-
· OFC
pipe laid is 2292 kms
· Optical
fibre laid is 358 kms
-As on
29.02.16 -
· OFC
pipe laid is 1,24,797 kms (51,616 GPs)
· Optical
fibre laid is 96,597 kms (41,086 GPs)
Reforms in
Postal department:
Efforts
to leverage the vast network of India Post for
implementing the mandate of financial inclusion
has received a renewed momentum from the
Budget announcements. In May 2014, India
Post had only 230 Core Banking
Branches offering anywhere Banking Services and
only 4 ATMs. Today, it is a matter of great
fulfillment that India Post has not
only installed more than 576 ATMs but
has overtaken the State Bank of India
to become India's largest Core Banking
Network having 18,231 branches. By March, 2016 all the
25,000 Departmental Post Offices would offer Anywhere Banking facilities using
Core Banking Solutions. 1000 ATMs shall also be installed by
31st March 2016. This would imply
that all Post Office Savings
accounts/certificates in all 155,000 Post Offices of lndia will
come under Core Banking Solutions. As on 29th February, 2016 India
Post has issued 1,26,181 ATM/Debit Cards to its
account holders. It is also expected that
by 31st March, 2016 20,000 Micro
ATMs shall be installed across
the country. Further, India Post
has achieved new heights in tapping the
potential of ecommerce. Its parcel revenues have witnessed a growth of 110% and
it has collected more than Rs.1200 Crores from Cash on
Delivery mode of payment for e-Commerce services.
NNK/MD