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.