Union Budget - 2022-23: What Edtech And Agritech Sector Is Expecting From Budget
The education segment has seen a radical change since the flare-up of Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. Mushrooming of ed-tech new businesses, shift to online classes, new programming and video conferencing innovations and learning applications were substantial changes seen in the Education ecosystem.
The Center had cut the education budget plan by 6% last year, adding up to a complete distribution of Rs 93,223 crore. Notwithstanding, the government is relied upon to raise the sum by around 10% in 2022 since last year's decrease was ascribed towards medical care.
On the other hand, The Agritech Industry is anticipating a ton from the union budget this time. Research and development boost, robotization, the motorization of the farm, steady contributions for startups are a portion of the expectations by specialists. The agritech sector looked for help from the government as far as tax reductions, qualification models to support the advancement of the area.
Here's what Ed-Tech and Agri-tech startups are expecting from Finance Minister this year.
Ed-tech Sector:
Mayank Kumar, Co-Founder & MD, upGrad
“Edtech has played a critical role in ensuring continuity for learners during a time of disruption in the traditional education ecosystem. It is also crucial to reskill and upskill in a world where continuous learning is the new mantra for survival and success. We look forward to the budget promoting continuous learning by allowing tax-deduction for the fees paid. This will give a boost to skilling India as it moves towards its rightful place in the world economy. Another important area the budget should address is the skilling and training of teachers as part of the edtech policy.
Moreover, India has generated a lot of unicorns in 2021 and will continue on this path in 2022, with many soonicorns on the waiting list. However, one critical key issue that the Union Budget can address is the taxation of ESOPs. With ESOPs, companies can attract and retain the best talent while improving productivity and creating shared ownership. Therefore, if the Budget can relook at the taxation of ESOPs and make it at par with listed equity taxation, it would greatly benefit the overall ecosystem."
Krishna Kumar – Founder and CEO, Simplilearn
“Since the onset of the pandemic in 2020, we have witnessed immense growth and development in the edtech industry, with the role of technology being further accelerated and coming to the forefront. The pandemic has made us understand that no matter what our qualifications or designations are, we need to upskill ourselves with industry relevant courses to stay ahead of the curve. This is one of the reasons why people chose to get their hands on online certifications. As part of the upcoming union budget, it would be encouraging to both learners and edtech platforms if the government would introduce a reduction on GST for online education services. The government should also consider allocating additional funds for the education sector, focused on teacher trainings across levels, so as to foster better learning outcomes. Further, as the requirement and demand for digital skills increases, it would be beneficial for the government to encourage public-private partnership models with ed-tech companies at a national and state level with the agenda to upskill and make the Indian digital workforce job-ready.”
Chandrahas Panigrahi, co founder Edukemy
Education sector has witnessed a massive disruption since the outbreak of covid pandemic. While on one hand, Ed-tech companies have been quick to adopt innovative methods to cater to National Education Policy 2020 through wider outreach of quality content at affordable costs, they expect the Budget 2022 to provide valuable support to make the Ed-tech scalable and cater to long term economic growth of the nation. Some of the key expectations for the Ed-tech sector are-
Sahil Sheth, Founder & CEO - LIDO Learning
"Watching the ed-tech sector gain steam in 2021 has been extremely rewarding, and to a substantial extent, we have the government to thank for facilitating the growing ed-tech movement. I hope the upcoming Union Budget helps ed-tech platforms like Lido scale further up. I know the new budget will be all about economic recovery, and empowering the common man, with a focus on job creation, credit growth, and infrastructure development. In education, I'm hoping for a bigger budget allocation so that more and more students can get the educational support they need, and for the integration of technology within traditional learning. A critical component that will play a role in the progress of ed-tech in 2022 is smartphone and Internet penetration, so I hope the Union budget announces programs to solidify Internet infrastructure and ensure last-mile connectivity in tier 2 and tier 3 cities. With so many startups now a part of the ed-tech segment, I am also hoping for a simplified loan approval process for MSMEs. We need robust data protection laws, and ramped up investments and partnerships within the ed-tech sector for further growth this year."
Pratham Barot, Co-Founder and CEO, Zell Education
“The much awaited union budget should direct its resources on implementation of NEP, building teacher capacities & augmenting health and hygiene at school levels. It should also focus on the implementation of edtech policies for all the students. While the education segment faced many challenges due to the Covid-19 pandemic, we look forward to the budget targeted to provide relief and support for this very important segment that plays a pivotal role in nation building. We further feel, it is extremely important to focus on having a regulatory body for the sector in place. This would provide transparency and confidence to consumers and avoid having monopoly of certain players in the sector.”
Divya Tej Pereira, Founder, Tutrrd
"Government should create an umbrella body which will regulate and create framework for the booming edtech space. This body will help streamline the edtech space and make sure that fair practices are in place. The GST slab which is 18% should be cut down to 5 % for education as a space so that more people can invest into education thus shaping a brighter future for tomorrow."
Diwakar Chittora, CEO and Founder, IntelliPaat
"The EdTech sector is still struggling with the 18% GST slab, and we look forward to it being reduced to 5% as this will help in creating affordability for quality education that will eventually lead to higher employability."
Charu Noheria, Co-Founder & COO, Practically
"We as a nation have done a commendable job of uplifting the education sector and growing it phenomenally. The much-anticipated Union Budget comes at a time when we are introducing necessary reforms in the EdTech space. Having a central body to regulate best practices in the education and EdTech space will be largely beneficial for the consumers. Ideally, the budget this year should consider important factors such as stronger adoption of the blended learning model and investment in a stronger digital infrastructure beyond Tier 1 cities as well. Digitization is expected to be an effective solution in bridging the literacy gap for our country. Additionally, for educational institutions and courses the revision of the 18% GST slab will be largely beneficial in offering more conducive rates or fees to students. Being one of the youngest nations in the world, we are moving towards a brighter future and with some basic reforms in place, we will undoubtedly be one of the strongest countries in the world."
Karun Tadepalli, CEO & Co-founder, byteXL
"Currently, subscriptions to EdTech platforms attract 18% GST. The Government in this Union Budget must unburden a load of excessive taxes by abolishing GST on eLearning. Our vision must be to ensure that the students are getting career ready, and they will be more productive to the workforce and the nation by skilling and upskilling themselves leveraging eLearning in an affordable manner. Additionally, a strong internet connectivity and infrastructure through adequate fund allocation must also be ensured to support seamless eLearning."
Jerold Chagas Pereira - Executive Director & CEO, mPowerO
The recurring waves of Covid have sufficiently demonstrated the importance of leveraging technology in education and skill training to enable continuity and to mitigate loss in learning. Keeping this in mind, the Finance Minister should, along with the Education Department, announce incentives for schools in Tier II, III and IV categories to upgrade to smart classrooms with digital learning management tools. After all, lack of quality education will negatively impact future growth prospects of the country.
The expectations for the benefit in general would be a growth-oriented budget that channelised investment into rural banking, affordable healthcare, education and skills and SMEs - particularly in manufacturing. Without greater inclusiveness, real GDP growth will not hit the desired levels of 9 to 12%, and take India’s per capita GDP to levels of countries like Thailand, etc."
Maninder Singh Bajwa, CEO and Founder, iScuela
"I am hoping the budget has announcements on regulation and framework to help the EdTech sector flourish. Additionally there should be increased support towards startups and small-mid enterprises in the EdTech space. In the last few years, we have witnessed an increased focus of the government on eLearning in the public sector. As smartphone and internet penetration continues, we are hopeful that there will be various initiatives accelerating eLearning programs across the nation. This will slowly but surely go a long way in bridging the digital divide."
Awal Madaan, CEO and Founder, AwalEnglish.com
"The education technology industry has witnessed revolutionary changes ever since the COVID-19 pandemic has entered our lives with schools as well as other educational institutions being shut and lectures being shifted online. This transition from the traditional way of learning to online classes has helped EdTech start-ups grow at a rapid rate and this trend will most likely continue for years to come. This is why stakeholders in the EdTech business have high hopes from this year’s budget and are expecting the Government of India to increase the expenditure on education in this year’s Union budget."
Lehar Tawde, Co-founder, ConnectEd Technologies
"We expect this year’s Education budget to focus on reducing the digital divide, which has kept a significant number of students - that rely on the country’s public education system and belong to challenged socio-economic backgrounds - from accessing education during the pandemic. We have already seen states like Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat provide devices and connectivity to needy students for free, or with heavy subsidies; we expect the Central Government to address this issue to ensure that students can resume classes virtually."
Shashank Patidar, Co-founder WeSkill
"Although the K12 education landscape has completely changed in the past two years, there still exist certain gaps that must be bridged to ensure quality education is accessible to all. Online education is here to stay and the government should assist in ways through which equal learning opportunities are accessible to learners all across the country.
In the upcoming Union Budget 2022, we would expect the government to invest in bolstering the learning infrastructure through incentives for greater device and internet access across all regions, especially for the suburban and rural population. Another high priority this year should be the effective implementation of the NEP on a large scale, with special incentives for educational institutions for successfully implementing the policy. Furthermore, the government must also consider investing more in curriculum development and revision to ensure that the curriculum taught is not just in line with the demands of the current times but also shapes students’ futures by increasing their employability quotient."
Anil Nagar, CEO and Founder at Adda247
"The companies in the startup ecosystem will play a significant role in transforming the country’s image. The EdTech industry has flourished at an accelerated rate as it broke new territory and entered tier 3 and 4 cities of the country. It will play a major role in educating our workforce for a better tomorrow. This is possible only if we make online education affordable to all. The Government should support this through a lower GST, while focusing on creating a strong digital infrastructure to improve the quality & experience of online education for students in cities as well as remote areas. The government should also forge alliances with Edtech companies to accelerate the learning outcomes with the help of cutting-edge technologies in the education ecosystem."
Sachin Sandhir, Founder & Co- CEO, GENLEAP
"The education sector has undergone a sea change in the last few years and has emerged as a sector of keen interest for all stakeholders. It has witnessed rapid digitization hastened by the pandemic and the need to provide education to all, and there are high expectations from the Government Of India for the upcoming Budget 2022. In line with the NEP and tactical support by the Government, the push for enriching the infrastructure with innovative technologies as per the industry's demand will spur competency and skill-based development. Apart from infrastructure, there must be a hardcore plan for up-skilling both the faculties & students with the industry-specific skill development programs."
Amit Agrawal, Founder and CEO, OckyPocky
"The education sector has undergone significant changes and is still evolving. Education has progressed to the point where textbooks, teachers, and traditional classroom-based learning are no longer adequate, necessitating the use of an engaging, interactive classroom to ensure effective learning."
Nitesh Jain, Founder & CEO, BeSingular
“Establishing the New Education Policy was an outstanding call by the Government as the new policy intends to integrate the Indian education system with global patterns. In the upcoming Union Budget, the Government should direct its resources on implementing the NEP. In line with the policy, the Government should also encourage the integration of new-age skills and future-relevant skills in the curriculum of educational institutes and universities. Edtech companies can support the government in accelerating this integration and enhancing the learning outcomes."
Ratan Deep Singh- India CEO, SkillUp Online
“We would really hope and expect Indian Govt. to step up investments & focus on Digital infrastructure specially in the rural & semi-urban areas of India. A larger focus and stepped-up investments will help fast track the digital skilling of rural and semi-urban populations in India, thereby solving multiple issues of unemployment, massive upcoming gap in demand & supply of future jobs, making India a global hub for digital investments.
Additionally, to promote and encourage digital skilling in India, we would hope that the GST rates could be reduced to 5% given that pricing is definitely a concern specially for students, unemployed & under privileged communities.
Moreover, we would welcome and appreciate any GOI initiatives and subsidies to promote digital learning for learners and edtech companies working in this space”.
Sharad Bansal, Co- Founder, Tinkerly
" With the country witnessing the 3rd wave of Covid, online classes have become mainstream now but they currently come under 18% GST slab. Relaxation on GST for online classes and STEM toys will encourage more enrollments of interested students. Due to COVID, we saw the demand-supply gap and it is crucial to bridge the gap by providing internet connectivity, better infrastructure in tier 3 and tier 4 cities, and running schemes like One student One laptop, scholarships should be provided for outstanding performances. Technical and soft skills training should be made mandatory for teachers. They should be trained to teach and maintain the engagement of the students in online classes. A provision of budget can be made under SSA for the same. Funds and disbursements to Atal tinkering Labs should be speeded up to improve the quality of education. Currently only schools can get grants for Atal Tinkering Labs, this should be extended to private learning centres and independent educators so that community driven Tinkering Labs can be established. We strongly believe Futuristic tech skills such as IoT, AI, coding should be included in the curriculum.Currently India’s government expenditure on education per child studying in government schools is significantly higher than the private education spent per child studying in private schools. This inefficiency can be reduced by providing Vouchers for direct education with the liberty to choose where and how to spend it. As mentioned in NEP 2020, the foundational pillars of technology such as equity, access, quality, affordability, and accountability should be leveraged and imposed."
Sindu Aven, COO & Co-Founder, OrangeSlates
“2020 & 2021 was all about a paradigm shift to online education as COVID-19 acted as a catalyst for this change from a physical classroom set-up. These 2 years have also seen the phenomenal growth of Ed-Tech platforms designed for better upskilling opportunities for educators, in specific. The shift to online education seems to be more permanent than transitory. Therefore, our expectation from Union Budget 2022-23 for the EdTech domain and educators would be government set-ups of exclusive teacher universities. Currently, teacher education is still archaic and slowly turning non-relevant with the changing times and that needs to change. We also appeal for de-regulation of teacher education and look forward to more PPP model integration in the teacher education space.”
Santosh Kumar, Co-founder & CEO, 21K School
“The government could focus on working towards strengthening the digital infrastructure in our country, as there has been a leap in the online mode of education, and also help create measures to collectively tackle the issues related to providing education to every region for achieving education to all. Gamification in education will provide an immersive and personalised learning experience to students, which will help in better retention of concepts and easy understanding through 3D visualising for tougher concepts. Virtual education itself can aim in reaching every home, empower students with more choices, enhance digital literacy and make a significant impact on the employment and skilling aspects of their career.”
Rohit Manglik, CEO, EduGorilla
"The Indian education sector stands at the cusp of disruption. The conducive policies have played an instrumental role in fuelling the rise of edtech companies that have democratised e-learning and plugged in the gaps in the offline education model. Extended tax exemptions and access to funding and mentoring networks for startups in the Budget will go a long way in sustaining this momentum. The upcoming Budget should also prioritise the implementation of 5G and strengthening of IT infrastructure. Moreover, legislation on data protection and rationalising of GST on online education services will help reap the benefits of e-learning,"
Dominic Prabhu, Founder, Pappaya Lite
"As per NASSCOM, the EdTech market in India is estimated to cross USD 3.5 billion by the end of 2022. In order to achieve the same, the EdTech industry will need access to more robust digital infrastructure, which will make quality education accessible to everyone. Government needs to support the ed-tech sector by implementing a 100% FDI policy which will enable the sector to acquire more capital. It will allow them to invest in Research & Development and adapt more cutting edge technologies, which in turn will be helpful for the customers who rely on the education platforms and facilities which are enabled by emerging technologies."
Vaibhav Singh, Co-Founder, Leap Scholar
"The Edtech sector has flourished and grown multi-fold in the past year at an accelerated rate and has seen higher investments across the spectrum. India is currently home to the highest number of study abroad aspirants in the world. This figure will increase exponentially this year as more and more students aspire for global education and careers. The 2022 budget is expected to have a higher focus on the edtech sector as a whole, with significant investments to enhance greater access to robust and improved digital infrastructure. The GST for educational services is expected to be brought down to 5% from the existing 18%, to increase accessibility and feasibility for students from lower and middle-class families. With greater internet penetration, the upcoming budget is expected to announce various initiatives to accelerate digital innovation in the edtech sector."
Akshay Chaturvedi, Founder and CEO, Leverage Edu
"The pandemic has changed education. The onset of online education has worked well for the minority that can afford it, but has put the larger country through an absolute unspoken crisis. While we cut out education budgets, it will be important for us to drive them in the right direction - devices for students to study from plus a distribution system that gets them these screens in real time, or putting together well-taken-care-of sanitised schools for those who can’t benefit from online, and a lot more. It’s important we think with a broader lens and with much bigger hearts. Also, as we go along building and supporting world class institutions in our country, it’s important for us to play by the oldest tenet in our history - of ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’ - and encourage more students to become Global Citizens, to benefit from the diversity of global programs in countries that are our friends like the UK, Australia, Canada, US - in turn helping India conquer the world as a soft power."
Abhimanyu Saxena, Co-founder of InterviewBit & Scaler
"The government's push to institutions urging them to relook and update their current curriculums is welcome. A more practical and effective move to address this lag might lie in engaging with e-learning platforms that can help equip learners with the industry's most relevant and sought after skills, thus elevating their employability for the long term."
Shekhar Jain, Co-founder - OMOTEC
The Prime Minister has asked the nation to be Atmanirbhar. With this he has sowed the 3 big game changers for India – (a) National Education Policy (b) StartUp Culture (c) India to be the new manufacturing destination for CHIP manufacturing.
For all the above, the common underlying theme is that the students of today and tomorrow will need to have more technology focused education by aiding today's education with new age technology subjects of Robotics, Electronics, Coding Languages along with Artificial Intelligence and Machine learning. Of the 1.4 million schools in India, 55% of them are run by the government which caters to at least 60% of the 250 million K12 students. To offer these programs, the education sector would request the following considerations :
Agritech Sector:
Dhruv Sawhney, Business Head and COO, nurture.farm
"Farmers in India still work on Agri models that are input-intensive, which affects their overall profitability. Enabling a lean agribusiness model should be a priority by developing shared economy platforms through which farmers can access farm equipment and machinery at substantially lower costs. Mechanisation in agriculture would improve productivity and yield, and India needs significant improvements in both these spheres. An impetus towards shared economy models and digitisation of Agri ecosystems in India would induce transparency into the entire sector - empowering farmers to make informed decisions and improve their output and incomes.
Another way to improve farmer incomes is to focus on adopting sustainable agricultural practices. Incentivising this for Indian farmers will have a two-pronged impact - on the one hand, it will improve the carbon footprint of agriculture, making it climate-friendly, and on the other, by leveraging carbon credits, farmers will have a scope to earn higher incomes. With the second-largest arable land in the world, India can be a world leader in establishing the potential impact on climate and farmer incomes by adopting sustainable agriculture practices. Enabling public private partnerships in this domain can help Indian farmers leapfrog towards a climate friendly, sustainable and profitable agriculture."
Prithviraj Sen Sharma, Managing Director & Country Head, Agoro Carbon Alliance, India
"India is today in a unique position to drive long-range change towards building climate resilient mechanisms for agriculture and the food industry, and we expect the union budget to reflect some of these priorities very strongly for the coming year
Indian growers are poised to benefit greatly from the fresh thinking the administrative bodies have around building newer, smarter, more digitally-connected ways of producing more food with less resources. With initiatives like More Crop Per Drop, we are taking the first steps towards building longer term resiliency towards more and more frequent climate swings & shifts in the geo-political scenario to cement India's place as one of the most important node points ensuring food security globally. The upcoming union budget should reflect the shift in attitude towards being more grower-centric, building highly resilient food distribution mechanisms and ensuring our farmers are adequately compensated for their work."
Anuj Kumbhat, Founder & CEO, Weather Risk Management Services(WRMS)
“As agriculture remains the backbone of the rural economy in India, the sector is always the key spotlight in the Union Budget. In the current scenario, where the country is making all the possible ways to deal with another wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, we expect the government to allocate a significant amount of budget that paves the way for economic revival for the farmers. As we know, COVID has given a booster dose to the digital transformation; we would like the government to put policies in place that allows farmers to be better aware of technology-enabled smart approaches in farming. This can be done as an offshoot of the much-publicised “Digital India” where there was added impetus on the adoption of digital technology.
We envision a future where technology becomes the best companion of the farmer and provides them the best productivity from their limited means. This can only be achieved by de-risking farming to impart the confidence to adopt the latest innovations and technology among the farmers, especially smallholders. Hope the government imparts the agritech sector necessary opportunities and incentives to grow as a robust sector within the country’s economy.”
Subhadeep Sanyal, Partner, Omnivore
"The pandemic emerged as an added challenge to the doubling of farmers' income. I expect the government to bolster this objective via better credit availability, robust storage and logistics infrastructure and strengthening backward linkages. However, farm income is also intertwined with the deepening impact of climate change. Recognizing India's vulnerability on this front, the government can add to its efforts for finding long-term sustainable solutions. Incentivizing private investments in agrifood life sciences is certainly a step in that direction."
Amit Sinha, Co-Founder, Unnati
"The Agriculture sector has seen significant progress over the years, primarily owing to technological advancements, although this can be improved further. In the upcoming 2022-2023 Union Budget, we expect the government to keep farmer upliftment, alongside rural growth and development as their topmost priority. An increase in investments of rural infrastructure, MSME development, digitization of the agri-ecosystem, and farmer productivity prioritization of Agritech to fund early-stage start-ups that are disrupting the agricultural economy also need to be focused on."
Taranjeet Singh Bhamra, CEO & Founder, AgNext Technologies
"2021 was a good year for the agritech sector, which flourished with strong investments and greater adoption of technologies in the market. To support this growth momentum, acute focus on the development of the burgeoning agritech ecosystem is pivotal. We hope that the upcoming budget will prioritize R&D incentivization in agriculture, along with the supportive impetus to allow agritech businesses, particularly start-ups, to scale domestically at a greater pace."
Abhishek Negi, Co-Founder, Eggoz
"Agri startups are revolutionising the Indian agriculture and we expect government’s continued support to keep up the growth rate. One of the major issue agri start-ups faces early on is raising capital and getting funded. Our key demand from the government is to set up a start-up growth fund for early stage agri start-ups and possibly a dedicated cell at the centre or state level to solve issues for agri start-ups. Additionally, Agri-tech and related startups are also in need of cheaper financing and debt solutions for working capital or machinery investments. While government has made many schemes at a policy level, we expect robust direct dissemination or via banks, so that startups can utilize the credit available and grow their business and generate employment. As the agri start-ups are solving problems across value chains for the Indian agriculture, a special focus on infrastructure, R&D and a policy framework for agri start-ups will go a long way to empower them. It is now time that the Indian government build its own rural incubators to support rural youth to build their own entrepreneurial models."
Deepak Yadav, Founder, Green Sat Innovation Labs Pvt Ltd.
"The start-up sector, in particular agri-tech and agri-fintech firms, is brimming with expectations as the Union Budget approaches. These expectations are actually a much-needed push for the sector like FEMA Laws, requiring ease of RBI laws for outgoing and incoming of funds as investments in this sector. Many agrifintechs use API base technologies from Companies abroad on monthly payments in USD on credit or debit cards or direct account debits for that also approvals and CA certificates and other regulations make this API integration a difficult task. Indian start-ups will be able to integrate new technologies in real time. In the wake of changes in export incentives, Agri start-ups are focusing on developing a vision where India emerges as one of the world's premier Agri export hubs, challenging Brazil and China. It can be a game changer for Indian agriculture, as well as India's export sector."
Vishal Saurav, CEO & Founder of VFLYX India
“The drone technology has been gaining momentum in India in the last couple of years, especially since the announcement of allotment of 120 Cr via PLI scheme over the three years. This makes us believe that the budget also will give some tax relief and promote the 'Make in India' campaign for drones more aggressively. Getting some subsidy for Agri drones will help Indian farmers to adopt latest technology thus giving boost to India’s biggest industry- Agriculture. Opening the defense sector more to the private players will be a shot in the arm. If the import duties are reduced, it will encourage drone manufacturing in India so that the overall cost of the system is way lesser.”
Krishna Kumar, Founder & CEO, Cropin
“The Indian government has taken several measures in the past year to revive the agriculture sector. The agriculture sector has shown positive growth even during the pandemic and is the backbone of the Indian economy. Hence, it is imperative to support rural financing and provide risk coverage to farmers to improve crop production and promote self-reliance. Apart from providing adequate financial assistance to farmers, we expect the government to introduce necessary measures to develop digital infrastructure to accelerate technology adoption. The government should also formulate a policy to promote fruits and vegetable exports from India in the upcoming budget and support investments in building digital infrastructure and food traceability systems. Climate change and agriculture are intricately connected. Transitioning to climate-smart agriculture is vital, and provisions to promote this should also be included in this year's budget”, he emphasized."
