Budget has set the tone to build a future-proof economy, says Colliers' Sankey Prasad

With an eye on the future, the Union Budget 2022-23 has set the tone to build a future-proof economy with focus on digitization, sustainability, and urban development. This year’s budget will help India vault into the future powered by clean energy, drones and start-ups, green bonds, and crypto currency, said Sankey Prasad, Colliers' Chairman & Managing Director, India in an interaction with ET. He further spoke about the ease of doing business, making India an attractive country for investors, government thrust on warehousing and logistics amongst other, Excerpts.

Do you think that the budget strived to achieve a higher transparency to boost confidence in real estate?
In recent years, the government has scrapped over 25,000 compliances to improve ease of doing business. The ‘ease of doing business 2.0,’ will includes several dynamic parameters and digitize the system. This is much-needed at a time when India is looking to benefit from several companies’ China+1 strategy for their manufacturing operations. The thrust on infrastructure will bode well for such firms looking at India for setting up their facilities. It shows that India is stepping up and can offer a competitive deal for investors. Production-linked schemes for manufacturing firms will also boost industrial activity in the country.


Further, the real estate sector will significantly benefit with continued thrust on digitization of land records in terms of attracting capital and availability of credit. This will help enhance confidence amongst investors to set up manufacturing facilities while ensuring smoother credit delivery.

What were the key announcements that helped strengthening logistics and delivery systems?
The Budget made several announcements to spur growth of the logistics sector in the country. In addition to the development of 25,000 km of new highways, the Gati Shakti Masterplan for expressways,100 new cargo terminals for multi-modal logistics, building of multi-modal logistics parks and development of urban metro systems will give a big boost to developing new warehousing and logistics facilities across the country.

What are your views on the focus on ‘Sustainability’ in the Budget announcement?
In what can be called the most futuristic budget ever, the government has put together a framework towards 2070 when India aims to be a ‘net zero’ country. Green energy, clean mobility is high on the government’s agenda as seen in the announcements for boosting hydro, solar power capabilities and the Electric Vehicle sector. An important aspect touched upon in the budget is the drive towards electric vehicles. This is timely as in India, the transport sector is currently the thirdlargest emitter of CO2. The battery swapping policy and several laws and incentives already being provided by different states will boost investments in this space. The EV space in India is likely to see investments of INR94,000 crore (USD12.6 billion) across the automotive value chain, over the next five years.

Then comes the introduction of sovereign green bonds in public sector projects in the right direction. Green bonds are debt instruments that are used to raise money to fund projects that have a positive impact on the environment and climate. The green bond market size is pegged at $517 billion in 2021.

Was there enough for homebuyers to look forward to?
Chartering a new growth frame for export-oriented spaces, replacing SEZs. Creation of such export-led employment nodes should be done in a way that it caters to global trade norms and has world-class infrastructure.

While the announcements were futuristic, some incentives for homebuyers would have further propelled the housing sector. Moreover, there needs to be an effort to revive the PPP model in India to ensure efficient collaboration between the government and the private sector in sectors like infrastructure and housing.

Overall, a thumbs up to the Budget 2022 for its long-term growth outlook.