Tech industry take on Indian Budget 2017
New Delhi, February 2 2017: The  IT driven industry    sounds some muted cheers -- but no one is terribly excited about  the Indian budget.  Rather, they are thankful to get away without any major   fiscal hiccups.
The unknown Indian, flourishing his Aadhaar card to make a digital payments -- he (or she) was the saviour for many segments of the tech industry. The  push towards a cashless digital economy has been welcomed by companies, mostly startups or e-commerce entities , which stand to benefit from the fallout. 
The e-cash tool BHIM added to the support for BharatNet is welcomed by mobile phone makers as an indirect fillip to selling more handsets-- though there is precious little direct incentive for the sector... in fact phones will be marginally costlier after the latest tax tweaks|
Skill developers and educators  find  silver lining in online training platforms like  Swayam.  
The  core infotech industry has been virtually ignored in the Union Budget 2017, with little either to enthuse or enrage them.  Partha Iyengar of Gartner makes a perceptive comment:  IT industry has become quite mature and does not need sops to continue its growth trend (other factors like Trump notwithstanding), there were no overt steps taken – and none expected – for the industry, and there is no hue and cry about it. In a sense it is a no-news is good-news story for the sector from a budget perspective.”

We carry a full slate of industry opinion on the budget here