Budget 2023: Impact on Biometric & Security Industries
The keen focus of the Union Budget 2023 on the
national infrastructure development and digital transformation sets India towards
global competitiveness through technology-driven programmes offering world-class
public facilities, sustainable urbanization, huge opportunities for jobs and
entrepreneurship, boost to start-ups, research and development in emerging
technologies, etc., collectively driving a variety of sectors including Biometric & Electronic Security sectors while also aiming to augment the
groundworks laid in the previous Budget.
As a highlight of the budget a staggering capital
outlay of 2.40 lakh crore, the highest ever outlay, has been allocated
to modernize and expand the Railways emphasising the need for widespread
implementation of security measures to identify and prevent potential threat
incidents from occurring thereby ensuring safety of the public.
Besides, the budget also accommodates construction of 50
additional airports to its Multimodal Transportation scheme. From a
strategic perspective, the mega project is a positive indicator for the
Biometric as well as Security Industries in a multitude of segments including
Passenger Identity Management, Threat Inspection, Pedestrian & Vehicle
Entrance Control, Intelligent Video Analytics, etc.
Whereas the ‘Sustainable Cities of Tomorrow’ programme concentrates on the overall growth of metropolitan provinces in
addition to urbanization of the Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities through Urban
Infrastructure Development Fund along with the initiatives such as Unity Mall
and boost to Tourism are further expected to fuel the Security Sector.
Another important aspect of the budget is its emphasis
on technology-driven economic development. The Centres of Excellence for
Artificial Intelligence envision the “Make AI in India and Make AI work for
India” together with leading techno giants for execution of interdisciplinary
research, development of state-of-the-art applications and innovative solutions
alongside a 100 hi-tech labs for developing applications using 5G technology for
new opportunities, business models, and to enhance the employment potential.
The government also plans to train and educate young
aspirants as well as start-ups in cutting-edge technologies including advanced
programming, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), robotics,
mechatronics, etc., via 30 Skill India International Centres throughout the
nation as well as by the Skill India Digital Platform alongside various schemes
for MSMEs.
This creates ample opportunities for jobs and
entrepreneurship as well as blooming of new start-ups indicating a huge demand
for various enterprise solutions, cloud-infrastructure requirements as well as
human resource management and workplace security solutions.