Post-Budget Reaction by Mr. Sanjay Tripathy, Sr.EVP, Marketing, Product, Digital & Ecommerce, HDFC Life
The Union Budget has laid a roadmap for growth and encouragement of entrepreneurship in the long run. With ecommerce booming in the Indian economy, such a move was a crucial imperative. India has close to 10 million online shoppers and is growing at an estimated 30% CAGR vis-à-vis a global growth rate of 8–10%. This overwhelming response has led to the mushrooming of various ecommerce portals across sectors. The Budget clearly states the government’s intention to nurture growth of ecommerce by announcing initiatives such as creating a single clearance window for ease of doing business in India and consumer friendly measures like incentivising credit and debit card transactions to augment receptivity to online transactions. The Rs 1000 crore fund that has been allocated for start-ups will provide greater impetus to new online businesses and further generate greater employment opportunities. However, while the budget showcased plans for long term growth of the e-commerce industry, more clarity was required for short and medium term aspect. It will be interesting to note the turn in the industry once GST is rolled out which is still far from view.
