Mr. Mahendra Singhi, MD & CEO, Dalmia Cement (Bharat) Ltd :

“The FY22 Union Budget is bold and visionary as it focuses on boosting domestic manufacturing and strengthening infrastructure across the country to achieve the target of $5 trillion economy, raise GDP growth to 8% plus on a sustained basis and fulfil the vision of an AtmaNirbhar Bharat. The budget has backed up the targeted infrastructure led recovery with hefty increase in allocation to boost formation of assets across the country. Thus, the budget has proposed to raise capital expenditure by 35% on year to Rs 5.54 lakh crore for FY22. The launch of Asset Monetization Pipeline for brownfield infrastructure assets including railways will give necessary fillip to the sector and create a virtuous cycle for mobilising finances with launch of sector specific InvITs. The decision to launch three more dedicated freight corridors will ensure seamless movement of goods including raw materials and further bring down logistics costs for manufacturing sector.  Furthermore, increasing the target of National Infrastructure Pipeline projects to 7,400 projects will be instrumental in creating job opportunities across the country apart from providing strong business opportunities for ancillary industries like steel and cement. The budget has also laid emphasis on boosting the start-up ecosystem by incentivising one person companies and allocating Rs 50,000 crore for research. It is also heartening to see that budget has focussed on tackling the critical challenge of air pollution by allocating Rs 2,217 crores for 42 urban centres with a million-plus population.”