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IT Industry did not expect any favors from budget - Nasscom
By siliconindia
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Tuesday, 17 February 2009, 00:30 IST
Bangalore: Being a vote on account budget, Nasscom and the IT Industry did not expect major announcements in the budget announced today, the industry body said in a statement sent to media. It was, however, heartening to see the benefits that the Government is seeing in adopting IT, through projects like 'Arrow'. It was also good to see continued focus by the Government on infrastructure and education, Nasscom said.
To drive economic activity, the Government needs to expedite spending of these allocated funds particularly for IT projects, to stimulate the domestic market.
Head honchos from the other industries also echoed Nasscom view. Deepak Parekh, chairman, HDFC Bank, said, "Not a disappointment, I did not expect anything in the interim budget. It was never meant to be a giveaway. Interim budget is only an exercise of stating accounts."
Parasvnath Developers Chairman Pradeep Jain does not even consider the budget announcement as a serious matter. "It's a non-event for the corporate world. The interim budget is merely a populist budget," he said.
Sajjan Jindal, vice-chairman and managing director of JSW Steel, said, "I was not expecting much from this. For the next two-three months, we are going to have a policy freeze but monetary policies will address some factors like interest rates."
However, taking negative cues from the budget, Indian equities closed in the red as the interim budget presented by the government failed to offer any sops to investors. The 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange closed at 9,305.45 points, down 3.42 percent or 329.29 points. The BSE midcap index was down 2.93 percent, while the BSE smallcap ended 2.1 percent lower.
Meanwhile, Home Minister P. Chidambaram praised the interim budget tabled in parliament, saying Minister for External Affairs Pranab Mukherjee had done a commendable job given the difficult times facing the Indian economy. "It is, however, a matter of satisfaction that the Indian economy has weathered the global crisis reasonably well and is expected to post a growth rate of 7.1 percent in 2008-09," he said.