Q. What were the major points for you in the budget and how will it impact areas involving employment, education and vocation/skilling and, therefore, what is the outlook for your sector in particular?
A. The 17 per cent increase in allocation for the Human Resources Development Ministry is good news along with the Rs 1,000 crore allocation for skill development of youth. The additional Rs 500 crore provision for NSDC (National Skill Development Corporation) is also good news.
Q. Will the budget proposals improve the investment climate?
A. India has a hostile environment for entrepreneurship and this has been made worse in the last two years because of policy uncertainty. I don't think the budget did enough to reverse the mood.
Q. Is there anything else the finance minister could have done in this budget?
A. If job creation is a priority then the primary issue of labour laws and MSME (micro, small and medium enterprises) de-bottlenecking could have got more attention.
Q. What, in your opinion, is the highlight of this budget?
A. I think the most important thing was a shifting of the narrative in the
budget speech, economic survey and budget documents away from the view of a district collector and state to private sector job creation as a driver of poverty reduction. It almost signals that naukri is finally becoming as potent a political narrative as
garibi.
Manish Sabharwal, Chairman, TeamLease Services 
Special 
