What are your expectations from the budget?

BENGALURU: This year, the startup community is hoping that the state budget addresses the need for funds, increased purchase by state, and development of infrastructure for manufacturing. These are key areas which will level the ground of startups operating in Karnataka with its global counterparts. Focus on needs of startups and incubation centres outside Bengaluru could provide a boost in fostering home-grown innovations, thus making an impact on the state and country. As the first state in the country to have an Electrical Vehicle Policy (EV), and with a large number of startups working on the EV sector in Bengaluru, there is a keen interest to see if any significant progress of EV adoption would get space in this year state budget.  

- Sajith Kandiyil, VP Sales at Avench systems Pvt Ltd.

The startup trend in India is on a spectacular growth path, however, despite Central Government bringing various regulations to promote the emerging business, entrepreneurs continue to face various challenges. This time startups, SMEs and entrepreneurs are expecting this budget to abolish angel tax for government recognised startups. This will unleash its own potential and will help startups to grow rapidly. Early stage startups will also be nurtured with more investments.With the central government mentioning electric vehicles as a part of their 2030 vision, we expect something similar from our state government. For the urban mobility sector, we would like to see budget allocation towards development of infrastructure for electric vehicles and certain tax breaks to encourage adoption of commercial Electric Vehicles in the passenger vehicle segments like five-year road tax waiver or registration cost waiver. These interventions will offset the higher upfront cost on EVs and will boost the uptake of EVs. These interventions will also make Karnataka an attractive destination for OEMs in the EV space. 

- Sriram Kannan,co-founder and CTO, Routematic

We conducted an online survey for women re-starting their careers and 38 per cent of them cited child care as one of the biggest challenges in resuming work after a considerable break.Budget 2019 mandates 26 weeks maternity leave with a 400 cr proposal from last year to reimburse employers for seven of the 26 weeks of extended maternity leave. Amendments to the Maternity Act, 1961 is significant, but what about balancing paternity leave directives? Men should be incentivised to take longer periods of paternity leave as well. Paid paternity leave can have positive effects for gender equality at home and at work, disrupting prevailing stereotypes.Outdated skill sets is yet another reason women are keeping out of the workforce. 34 per cent of the women in our survey mentioned re-skilling as a necessity to restart their careers, progression and job role changes. We hope to see the state budget focussing on skills development programmes for women, family leave policies, equal pay policies to close the gender pay gap, and compulsory anti-harassment training to ensure safer working environments for women.Additionally, we need to see a stronger focus on hiring and retainment of women in the workforce, with a greater focus on recruiting more senior women leaders, and more impactful women-specific employment policies that can absorb and support women in the Indian workplace.”

- Neha Bagaria, CEO & Founder, JobsForHer