Budget 2021: Indian IT firms set to gain from Digital Census 2021, MCA 21 3.0

Indian IT firms stand to gain from the budget proposals of Digital Census 2021 and revamp of Ministry of Corporate Affairs portal MCA 21 3.0.

While presenting the Union Budget 2021-22 on Monday, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that the government will use data analytics, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning to launch MCA 21 3.0 which will add the facility of e-scrutiny, e-consultation, compliance management, and e-adjudication among others.

The big-ticket project is currently run by Infosys Ltd. and is expected to come up for renewal in July 2021. It was handed to Infosys from TCS in 2013. The second phase of MCA 21 had a total project outlay of Rs 357.81 crore.

With new digital capabilities to be added, the next version of the marque project is expected to garner more interest from foreign as well as Indian tech majors.

Sitharaman also said that the next general census in the country will be the first digital. This will mean a boost in business for both hardware companies, which will likely see a surge in sales of laptops, tablets, smartphones and printers, as well as software companies that will run and build the technology-enabled backend.

The Budget also launched a National Indian Language Mission with the idea of extending the “wealth of governance” in major Indian languages. “Setting up of Natural Language Translation Mission will help India strengthen its power as a global #digital hub. Keen to learn more about the initiative from the government,” the IT industry body said on Twitter.

Rakesh Deshmukh, co-founder and chief executive officer of Indus OS, said that the announcement of the National Language Translation Mission is a much-needed effort by the government to reach our citizens in the language they understand.

“At Indus App Bazaar, the usage of apps in Indian languages on our platform has increased 2.2 times last year. We believe that with an enhanced app store ecosystem, we will be able to break linguistic barriers and add more value to the next half a billion Indian customers.” he said.

Sitharaman also said that the capacity of the GSTN system was enhanced using deep analytics and AI to identify tax evaders and fake billers. The government launched special drives against them and made record collections in the last few months.