Budget 2017: Rs 10,000 crore allocated for laying optic fibre cables

Reliance Jio plans fiber broadband network in 900 towns
India Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the government will allocate Rs 10,000 crore for laying optic fibre cables across the country, while presenting the Budget 2017.

India aims to strengthen the digital infrastructure in rural India, by allocating Rs 10,000 crore for Bharat Net broadband project.

The investment plan is slated to empower over 150,000 gram panchayats with high speed internet and Wi-Fi hotspots. While this sets the right impetus for rural India to come online, the government has further taken the steps necessary to ensure optimum level of cyber security.

“The thrust on Digital India and digital payments both require a focus on cyber security. The financial CERT and the attention towards cyber security in financial budget are in right direction. The implementation of the initiative will help secure Digital India,” said Sivarama Krishnan, leader – Cybersecurity at PwC India.

Allocation of Rs 10,000 crore for Bharat Net and elimination of service charges for railway tickets booked via IRCTC will give a major boost to the mission of making India a digital economy.

Additional funds for Bharat Net will further spread the tentacles of optical fiber, which is the backbone of Digital India program

“Aadhaar based smart cards for monitoring the health of senior citizens is a great way to leverage the citizen identity database while marrying technology with health. The move will reduce the burden on our health machinery to some extent and open up avenues to explore more applications of digital citizen identity database,” said Neel Ratan, leader – Government and Public Sector at PwC India.

“We especially appreciate the Computer Emergency Response Team to be setup post the budget announcement and dedicatedly monitor cyber hacks, ensuring the security and integrity of online data. The synergy created by these announcements, along with the efforts of cyber security solutions is going to further inspire new users to come online, aiding India’s transition to a digital economy,” said Amit Nath, ‎head of Asia Pacific – Corporate Business at F-Secure.

India Budget 2017 has prepared a solid foundation for another disruption in form of the incoming GST reform.

“Finance Minister indicated that technology is going to play a major role in implementation of Government’s clean up agenda. Accordingly, indirect tax on devices related to digital infrastructure is exempted to give a boost the industry,” said Rashmi Deshpande, associate partner at Khaitan & Co.

The service tax rates along with excise rates that were pegged to increase to be line with the proposed GST rates remained untouched.

The e-commerce industry should gear up for an overhaul in terms of its system to keep in line with GST as the Government made amply clear its readiness for the tectonic policy reform.

Proposal of introducing Rs 20 lakh Aadhar based Point of Sale (POS) machine will be a game changer for digital payments ecosystem in the semi-urban and rural areas where conventional POS machines are absent and people do not have access to mobile phones.

“Though it remains to be seen if the proposed setting up of Payments Regulation Board under RBI and amendments in the Payments and Settlement Act will bring about fundamental changes to accommodate the fast changing digital payments ecosystem in the country,” said Rahul Gochhwal, co-founder of Trupay.

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