High Five

The fi ve sectors that will throw up big business opportunities because of the Budget.

The five sectors that will throw up big business opportunities because of the Budget

Finance minister Arun Jaitley’s Budget ticked off all the right boxes. He spent on infrastructure — both urban and rural — on agriculture, and gave tax rebates to small tax payers and micro, small and medium enterprises. But as he pointed out in his interview on Doordarshan, “Our weakness is the private sector and that the banks are still struggling.”

So, what did the Budget do to address those problems? For many analysts, these were the two points on which the Budget disappointed. A fairly meagre `10,000 crore was allocated for public sector bank recapitalisation, which is very little given the problem at hand. And there does not seem any great measure or a breakthrough idea that will spur private investment once again or create sunrise sectors that would attract big private investments, create jobs and drive economic growth and, finally, give rise to a new crop of entrepreneurs and businessmen.

However, looking at the areas in which the finance minister allocated the bulk of additional resources, it is clear that private entrepreneurs can look towards new business opportunities in these five sectors. There are still hurdles to cross, and there are still many other issues that need to be sorted out. The labour laws still need to be tackled, and despite the additional allocation on the MUDRA front, credit for new businesses is still going to be hard to come by. But, for the smart entrepreneur, these provide enough and more opportunities because of the Budget proposals. Business Today looked at the opportunities being thrown up in infrastructure, agricultural and rural sectors, housing and real estate, on the micro and small enterprises front, and finally because of the big digital push by the government.