Himanshu Gautam, Co-founder and CEO, Safalta Education Pvt Ltd – a platform focused on quality education, accessibility, and economic viability:
“The 2022 budget’s approach on aligning education with employability resonates with our vision. The National skill qualification framework will be of great help for the right kind of talent creation for actual industry needs, on which Safalta contributes through its skill courses. We also aim to contribute to the government’s vision of providing supplementary education in regional languages for students of class 9-12th. Safalta provides an affordable, high-quality education through vernacular pedagogy for students of semi-urban and rural India. Our commitment to creating an outcome-based learning Platform leading to employment will be magnified by the government’s push on creating a digital ecosystem through the setting up of a digital university and DESH portal. We welcome the FM’s announcement to extend the period of co-operation up to 31st March’23 for tax incentive of Startups.”
Nirmal Shah, Co-founder of Countingwell – dedicated maths learning app:
“We are glad to see the government’s focus on building digital tools and quality content for students. Given that education was one of the worst-hit sectors during the pandemic, the development of a digital university and the expansion of eVidya scheme, along with One Class One TV Channel, will greatly benefit the students to access high-quality education. From the EdTech industry perspective, it brings us into the mainstream, going beyond “had to have it because of Covid”. The impact and benefit of EdTech to the education systems will gain greater visibility with schools and parents, and we expect that to give us great impetus.”
Narayan Mahadevan, Founder, BridgeLabz:
“The budgetary allocation this year emphasises on the needs of skilling, reskilling and upskilling citizens. Considering the situation of the last couple of years which greatly impacted the job pool and led to declining job opportunities leaving the employable workforce jobless, this years’ union budget focused on creating 60 lakhs jobs. Hence, by prioritizing skilling and reorienting skilling programs the government will give an immense boost to the youth of the country to get back to work. I wish the government had definitive plans to accomplish the same and even encourage such platforms that work towards skilling from the perspective of employability and create business models on successful employment.”
Nikhil Barshikar, Founder and MD of Imarticus Learning:
“Path-breaking initiatives such as digital DESH e-portal, digital university and e-content portal for teachers serve to provide comfort on the acceptance of EdTech by the government and the regulatory bodies. We are pleased with the way Budget 2022 has focused on leveraging technology to drive deeper penetration into the market and breaking barriers to provide access to top-quality education to the masses. We expect EdTech businesses catering to customers in the Tier-II and lower cities to gain significant momentum in the coming years. Education is one of the key pillars of growth and youth upskilling is a major contributing factor. With technology playing a key role in the growth of various sectors, the availability of a skilled workforce will be critical. This provides significant tailwinds to opportunities in the technology upskilling space. Additionally, the focus on agricultural upskilling has given rise to a new opportunity for all the non-technology skilling players in the market.”
Sidharth Agarwal, Director, Spectrum Talent Management:
“As per today’s budget announcement by the FM, there will be creation of 60 Lac new jobs. Using a capital investment approach to do so and not making much alterations would work considering how well the corporate sector is doing. Taking into account the last 2 years of the pandemic which has been difficult for all, there wasn’t much for the salaried class/middle class. However, if I must say so, the goal is to improve things through infrastructure investment and by not putting money directly in the hands of the consumers. Introducing Desh Stack e-portal should be a help in creating and stimulating the environment for skill development. In the last year’s budget NAPS was the fourth pillar and now, announcing Desh Stack is a step in the right direction.”
Varun Dhamija, Founder, Sukiru:
“There are some significant measures announced for K-12 as there is a learning loss for students throughout the country. Implementation will be the key to watch out as there is going to be a lag effect by the time the measures come into effect. Budget is largely silent on the higher education, up-skilling sectors. Expected some support from the government for the disrupted white collared workforce who are also big contributors to direct income taxes.”
Ashwini Purohit, Co-founder & CEO, Winuall:
“It is great to see the government taking substantial strategies to promote digital learning. With the pandemic, we have observed a fundamental digital shift in the way tutors teach & students learn in the past two years. We believe digital tools will become an integral part of the learning experience and evolve our education system in a massive way going forward. The skilling program initiatives will not only help students but will also encourage teachers who face daunting challenges, especially in the rural areas. Education can be digitized in rural areas using technology infrastructure coupled with content and performance improvement recommendations. This will play a massive role in helping teachers and engaging students better. Every tutor will now be able to go beyond their boundaries and scale their business using technology. This will also enable students in remote areas to have access to top educators across the country in every domain that they could learn from.”
Nishant Sinha, Co-Founder, ByteLearn:
“Excellent initiative by the Government of setting up a digital university, 750 virtual labs, and 200 TV channels to compensate Covid induced Learning Loss. However, the initiatives could have been better if these plans were teacher assisted than being one way in nature.”
Arjun Gupta, Founder of Courseplay – a SaaS-based scalable talent experience solution:
“The 2022 Budget saw many missed expectations for SMEs and Startups. As one of the fastest-growing contributors to GDP, the SaaS sector should be promoted more by the central government. Share allocation process for startups to be simplified. Low-cost tech education in Tier 3 and smaller towns is a huge must, as the supply of skilled tech workers is at an all-time low compared to demand. Getting government contracts for tech startups is still very complicated and should be made easier. Labour Law reforms for tech companies would be appreciated too. The govt needs to stand behind Indian SaaS companies to make India the no. 1 SaaS exporter in the world. Hopefully, we will see some of this in next year’s budget.”
Siddharth Chaturvedi, Director, AISECT Group:
“The Union Budget 2022-23) is forward-looking with its focus on augmenting key areas of development. As we work on our mission of providing skill-based education, the Government of India’s focus in this area will bolster skilling and pave way for creating better opportunities for a vast pool of untapped talent in Semi-urban and rural India. The policy framework will give an impetus to online education, making it accessible to all. As an organization, we strive to promote education in regional languages to provide equal opportunities in a diverse nation like India. The expansion of one class, one TV channel program will play a pivotal role in realizing the potential of providing education in regional languages. With these futuristic measures, we aim to chart greater heights in the education and skilling space.”
Balamurugan S P, Co-founder, Guvi:
“For education and skilling, there has been an increase in the allocated budget. Rs 1,04,278 crores has been allotted for education. It’s higher than the last year’s allotment. Curious to know about the e-portal DESH STACK, which will be used for skilling, upskilling and reskilling. Seems it will also provide API-based credentials, trusted skills credentials, payment, and discovery layers to find relevant jobs and entrepreneurial opportunities. This will benefit the EdTech companies to collaborate in PPP. But I’m not sure how this is different from the NEAT Portal launched by AICTE.”
