In her budget speech, the Union Finance Minister made it evident that the 2021 union budget is going to focus on the needs of all stakeholders, especially those who are looking for opportunities in business and employment.

The enunciation of measures taken by the government to mitigate the impact of COVID reflects the intent and commitment of the government towards the road to recovery and for further strengthening the economy. The way to V-shaped recovery of the economy has been paved as it was reiterated that the Atmanirbhar packages accelerated the pace of structural reforms and they would amount to almost 13 percent of our GDP.

While laying impetus on self-reliance, the budget aims to strengthen the resolution of Nation First, doubling farmers’ income, strong infrastructure, healthy India, good governance, opportunities for youth, education for all, women empowerment, and inclusive development.

The verbatim of the finance minister's speech which quotes “It has reminded us of all the qualities that we as people, particularly our youth, epitomise having abundant promise and the unsuppressed thirst to perform and to succeed”, depicts that the government is looking forward to a new world that calls for inclusive and equitable growth.

To achieve inclusive and equitable growth, the government has focused on six pillars of growth to fuel the vision of self-reliance. Driven by data analytics, artificial intelligence, and machine learning, the launch of MCA21 Version 3.0 aims towards the development of a fintech hub at GIFT-IFSC. This will provide a boost to digital payments and pave the way for significant investment in research and innovation, therefore, generating huge employment opportunities in the IT sector.

The same focus has been laid on generating equal amounts of job opportunities in other sectors which include automobile and textile. The organisations will be able to hire talent from across the country, therefore, enabling tremendous job opportunities to the youth of Tier II, III, and IV cities. Along with this, the proposal of setting up a portal to collect and maintain the data of this workforce will certain the monitoring while ensuring required financial assurance to the contractual workers amid testing times.

Another major provision of the budget that focuses on increasing employment opportunities in the push for a women workforce in significant numbers. The inclusion of women in all categories including night shifts is a big leap towards ensuring the social security of a large pool of workforce.

The government has also worked on strengthening the startup ecosystem in the country which will yield great results in times to come as they are the growth engines for an economy. The startups have significantly contributed towards generating employment opportunities along with innovation. Increasing the thresholds for both paid-up capital and turnover, and allowing capital gains tax exemption for startup investment, the government has shown intent to accelerate the momentum of entrepreneurship. An additional thrust on motivating the ‘One-Person-Companies’ will have a stimulating effect on the economy of the country.

All this has been coupled up by a strong focus on education and skill development at all levels. The National Education Policy aims at enabling skill development courses at the school as well as college-level while the proposal of amendments in the National Apprenticeship Act is also encouraging. The extension of apprentice programs at global accredited institutions will help us in building niche and future-ready capabilities. With all such provisions in place, Budget 2021 seems to be catering to all and therefore stands true to its promise of a V-shaped recovery to the economy.

The author is the MD & Co-Founder, Wonderchef

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