Budget 2023 reaction | Kaushal Sampat, Founder of Rubix Data Sciences and Mohan Ramaswamy, CEO and Co-Founder of Rubix Data Sciences

• Digital Nation

The Union Budget 2023-24 has given a big boost to KYC. By recommending a risk-based approach instead of the current one-size-fits-all process, the government has paved the way for better compliance in customer and counterparty onboarding, as it adjusts verification levels depending on the risk. It will also help in cutting costs, saving time, and improving customer experience by a huge margin. eKYC has also got a big push in this Union Budget. The introduction of DigiLocker for MSMEs, Trusts, and other entities will vastly ease the eKYC process, as verification of statutory documents will be simplified.This budget has reiterated the government’s digitization intent. As a data sciences company, we are excited about the announcement of a national financial information registry. Considering that our platforms use and require a range of digital data from various government sources, having an umbrella source that has the latest available data would massively make KYC verifications, credit checks, business assessments, and therefore, risk scoring, easier and more credible. We hope the government will take this on a war footing as the Honorable Finance Minister seemed to convey and give this country a robust public infrastructure for enabling smooth credit flow.

• Agritech

We think the announcement of a digital public infrastructure for the agriculture sector is a very progressive step to encourage the adoption of technology in agricultural fields. Such an open-source digital public infrastructure will offer relevant information for crop planning and health, improve farmers’ access to inputs, credit, and insurance, and enable the development of tools for crop estimation and market intel. This will result in the creation and growth of the Agri-tech ecosystem and attract start-ups. There are many brilliant start-ups already working in this field and are waiting for that little fillip, which the government has provided in this budget. I think this step will go a long way in meeting the goal of expanding the farmer’s income by 2025.

• MSMEs

Nirmala Sitharaman’s 5th budget revolves around seven priorities: inclusive development, reaching the last mile, infrastructure and investment, unleashing the potential, green growth, youth power, and the financial sector. India’s MSME sector is impacted by measures related to all of these priorities. By boosting outlay to focus on each priority, there will be positive ripple effects on MSMEs that constitute the backbone of India’s business landscape. One of the expectations from the MSME sector for this budget was measures to enhance access to working capital. With the Rs. 9000 crore infusion into the Credit Guarantee Scheme for MSMEs and the allocations into various government schemes, this demand will be met to a large extent. Moreover, 39,000 compliances have been reduced and 3,400 legal provisions have been decriminalised to enhance the ease of doing business, making the going a little more smoother for India's MSMEs.