From Editorial Desk
The recently presented Budget by the GoI has placed a strong emphasis on the development of digital India, especially on AI, Cloud and Datacentre. It has not gone unnoticed by the IT industry leaders. We have been inundated by the commending comments from the IT sector about this move of the government.
Several leaders from the IT sector have welcomed this move by the government and have expressed their comments on it. Following are some comments from the IT industry about this aspect of the Budget 2026 –
“The Union Budget 2026–27 marks a decisive shift in positioning digital infrastructure as a strategic national asset. Long-term tax holiday for global Cloud players using Indian datacentres and safe harbour provisions provide much-needed certainty and the recognition of cloud and DCs alongside core infrastructure send position India as a credible hub for digital infrastructure serving global markets. What stands out is the strong alignment between policy intent and execution, from sovereign Cloud enablement and AI-ready datacentre capacity to accelerated city-level digital infrastructure across Tier 2 and Tier 3 markets.
This clearly favours players with pan-India footprints and the ability to deliver connectivity, datacentres, Cloud and managed services as an integrated stack. As enterprises, governments and high-tech industries increasingly run mission-critical, data-intensive workloads, continued support for compliant, India-hosted Cloud and resilient networks will be essential. The Budget lays a solid foundation for infrastructure-led digital growth and positions integrated infrastructure providers to emerge as default digital partners in India’s next phase of industrial, cloud, and AI-driven expansion.”
—Pinkesh Kotecha, Chairman and MD, Ishan Technologies
“The government has given tax benefits and other facilities for AI, semiconductor, Cloud platform and datacentre in this budget, with a 5-year perspective. This will lead to the establishment of many datacentres, Cloud platforms and AI setups with big companies and foreign investment, bringing money and jobs to the country.
Today, 50% of America’s economy is driven by the services sector; and the government has given many benefits and provisions in this budget to promote this sector. With IT, AI, Cloud and services, the country’s economy will reach new heights. This shows the government’s long-term vision to take the country from a developing to a developed nation.”
–Rajiv Khanna, Chairman, JCDA
“The Union Budget 2026-27 is a landmark ‘Infrastructure-First’ roadmap that fundamentally shifts India’s role from a global consumer to a global architect of high-tech solutions. For the Value-Added Distribution (VAD) landscape, the doubling of the Electronics Component Manufacturing Scheme (ECMS) to Rs 40,000 crore and the launch of ISM 2.0 provide the long-term fiscal predictability required to build a world-class domestic supply chain.
What stands out most is the strategic focus on ‘Intelligence-First’ infrastructure. The government’s decision to offer a tax holiday until 2047 for global Cloud providers – contingent on utilising Indian resellers – is a game-changing technical mandate. It empowers VADs to move beyond product supply and lead the deployment of complex Hybrid Cloud and Edge Computing architectures.
As we scale our efforts in AI-ready storage, specialised datacentre solutions and smart surveillance, this budget provides the necessary tailwinds to turn ‘Viksit Bharat’ (developed India) into a tangible, high-tech reality.
This budget is the catalyst that transforms VAD from a logistics function into a ‘Solution Engineering’ powerhouse, bridging the gap between global innovation and India’s sovereign digital infrastructure.
Some important points from the Budget –
- Hybrid Cloud Mandate – The 2047 tax holiday creates an immediate demand for Indian VADs to act as the primary interface for hyperscalers.
- Component Localisation – The Rs 40,000 crore ECMS outlay will stabilise the Bill of Materials (BOM) for locally integrated server and storage solutions.
- Safe Harbour Provisions – The new 15.5% safe harbour margin for IT services simplifies the tax compliance for international vendor partnerships.
– Debraj Dam, Chief of VAD, Supertron Electronics
“The Union Budget’s strong emphasis on infrastructure development across cities, transport corridors and logistics networks is a clear signal that India is accelerating toward an AI-driven future for Viksit Bharat. As smart and connected transport infrastructure, spanning new freight corridors, waterways and multimodal logistics hubs takes shape, AI-powered video intelligence will play a critical role in enabling safer operations, improved efficiency; and real-time visibility.
This Budget’s emphasis on AI, digital systems and technology-led governance reinforces our belief that True AI-Powered Video Surveillance & Computing Platforms will be central to smart urban infrastructure, modern traffic management, perimeter security and large-scale infrastructure monitoring. This presents a major opportunity for AI-powered video computing platforms to turn real-time and historical video data into predictive traffic insights, operational efficiency and improved public safety. The time for incremental change has passed, strategic adoption of AI is essential to building a smarter, more resilient and future-ready Viksit Bharat.”
—Bhardwaj Naik, Chief Revenue Officer, Videonetics
The above comments show that the government’s decision to boost digitisation by AI, Cloud and datacentre and strengthen the infrastructure is being seen in the IT sector as a strategic move to further digitise India and a great opportunity for the IT sector.
It remains to be seen to what extent these aspirations and hopes are realised in future.
More to come. Watch this space for future posts.
News and Opinions... 