RETAIL/ FMCG

“Overall, the Union Budget 2017-18 is on expected lines and is focused on improving the quality of life in Rural India. Finance Minister has re-iterated the Government’s promise of doubling farmer's income by 2022 with various additional allocations and funds in this sector. The Budgetary allocation for cultivation of specialised medicinal and aromatic plants is another big positive and will help promote India’s Ayurvedic heritage.” — Sunil Duggal, CEO, Dabur India Ltd

“In addition to certain specific provisions for this industry, the general focus of the Budget on rural economy, including significant fund allocations, would help in pushing up demand for apparel in the domestic market. The emphasis on infrastructure development and the apparel manufacturing involved significant domestic transportation of raw materials as well as finished goods and infrastructural bottlenecks have been hindering this industry.” — Rahul Mehta, President, CMAI

“The budget allocation of Rs 7,100 crore in the budget would be helpful but the real issue for the textile industry is lack of skills, high cost of capital and low focus on startups in this industry. For the latter, it would have been better to make some amendments to the Angel tax. There are numerous schemes such as the ROSL or TUFTS but these help exporters while the real growth story is in India itself.“— Aditya Singhal, Founder & CEO, IML Jeans Co.

“The announcement of Operation Green to boost produce will be a major enabler for players like Bigbasket as we focus on organic produce in a major way. Developing and upgrading rural haats into gramin agriculture markets is another positive step. The increase in the Minimum Support Price of all crops to at least 1.5 times that of the production cost is in conjunction with these efforts.” — Hari Menon, CEO, Bigbasket