Budget 2024: What White Rivers Media's Shrenik Gandhi and AdCounty Media's Abbhinav Jain think about Budget 2024

FM Nirmala Sitharaman has announced the Interim Budget or the ‘Vote of Account’ for 2024 today. The Lok Sabha elections, which will be held between April and May, will see the newly elected government present the full budget for FY25. Here’s what leaders in advertising and marketing thought about the inclusions.

Shrenik Gandhi, CEO, White Rivers Media said, “Interim Budget 2024 has a very macro purpose; it's not a Big Bazaar discount policy. This is an absolute mature non-appeasement budget. The 6% relief in corporate tax will drive immense consumption benefiting MSMEs and startups, laying the groundwork for sustained economic growth. Initiatives like UPI, DigiLocker, and a robust digital tech stack have opened unprecedented global avenues for exporting India’s tech prowess.”

“Two aspects that I would like to see being covered in the post-election budget are:

1.Transparent frameworks and user privacy regulations for Artificial Intelligence and

2.Leverage the talent of 50 lakh micro and macro ‘people of influence’ in the country,” he added.

Abbhinav R Jain, CFO, digital marketing agency, AdCounty Media said, “The recently announced budget reflects a commendable fiscal strategy, positioning it as a good budget. In last year's budget announcement, the MSME ministry was allocated Rs. 22,137.95 crore, which was 41.6% more than the previous fiscal year. This year, Honourable FM, Nirmala Sitharaman, emphasised on the government's plan to boost training programs for MSMEs to help them compete on a global level.

“MSMEs are integral to India's aim of becoming a 5 trillion economy. We are hopeful that the final budget, which will be announced after the elections, will lend major financial and technical support to these GDP drivers with initiatives like streamlined loan application, robust technology adoption and democratised access to capital,” he added.