From Anand Mahindra to Harsh Goenka: How industry leaders reacted to Union Budget

Mahindra Group chairperson Anand Mahindra was one among several industrialists who praised the Union Budget presented by finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday. The industry leaders appreciated the finance minister’s focus on the various sectors of the economy, which has been battered the coronavirus pandemic.

"In a time of unprecedented economic stress, the Govt’s responsibility was to spend enough to revive the economy or else face enormous human suffering. So I had one expectation from this budget: that we should be very liberal in terms of the targeted fiscal deficit. Box ticked,” Mahindra tweeted.

In a time of unprecedented economic stress, the Govt’s responsibility was to spend enough to revive the economy or else face enormous human suffering. So I had one expectation from this budget: that we should be very liberal in terms of the targeted fiscal deficit. Box ticked.

— anand mahindra (@anandmahindra) February 1, 2021

RPG Enterprises chairperson Harsh Goenka equated the stock market high driven by the budget with that of the Wall Street power play GameStop said that the budget has put the power in the hands of the masses. "Investors are driving markets up like #GameStop after #Budget2021 turns out to be like the #Reddit forum that’s putting power in hands of masses. A budget that focuses on healthcare, vaccination and infrastructure- truly democratising growth! Except this budget isn’t a bubble!" Goenka said.

"The government’s decision to strengthen school education with the implementation of the National Education Policy across 15,000 schools despite the hurdles owing to the Covid-19 pandemic shows clear intent. However, the rollout and implementation across all states should be done within a couple of years to bring parity for students to access education across the country," Rustom Kerawalla, chairperson of Ampersand Group, was quoted as saying by the CSR Journal.

Biocon’s Kiran Mazumdar Shaw also praised the budget for its healthcare and infrastructure spending. The budget has allocated ₹73,932 crore for healthcare while ₹54, 581 crore has been allocated for infrastructural development like that of smart cities and metro services etc. "The Budget 2021 has focused on infrastructure spending, boost in healthcare spending, monetisation and privatisation of public sector assets. All this augurs well to get the economy back on track," Shaw was quoted as saying by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).