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<ul><li>After taking on his new role, Bhasin is deep-diving into different markets under his jurisdiction, to make sure that the network is ready to meet the challenges of tomorrow, head-on.</li><li>He believes that their effort at <keyword id="8342798" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="future-proofing">future-proofing</keyword> the network has ensured that it is more well-placed today, when compared to its opponents.</li><li>Bhasin shares that a lot of the network's success can be attributed to the One DAN philosophy, which he will continue to strengthen.</li></ul> In September this year, <keyword id="248051" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Ashish-Bhasin">Ashish Bhasin</keyword>, the then CEO Greater South, and chairman and CEO – India, <keyword id="6368370" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="dentsu-aegis-network">Dentsu Aegis Network</keyword> (DAN) became the first Indian executive ever to lead the entire Asia Pacific business for the Network. He was also the first Indian to enter DAN’s Global CEO executive team. Since then, Bhasin, who is now based out of Singapore, has been constantly on the move. I spoke to him this Saturday and I realized he was travelling the whole weekend. “Things have been busy. I have been moving around a lot. Today I am in Shanghai, and tomorrow I will be travelling to Taipei,” he said. Bhasin took over the Network reigns as Chairman and CEO, DAN, South Asia in 2015. However, his journey with this organization began much before. Dentsu acquired UK’s Aegis Media to form Dentsu Aegis Network in 2013. Soon after, he pumped his way through to catalyze the expansion of the then relatively new network with around 45-50 employees under its roof to its current strength of 3,700 people. He grew the network on the back of smart acquisitions and continued focus on Digital. His ambition? To build DAN into the country’s most innovative, future-proofed market-leading network. In his new role, Bhasin shares that his primary focus would be to understand how each of the markets under his jurisdiction work and to make them future-ready. Bhasin’s key areas of focus As he starts deep-diving into the different markets under his jurisdiction, for Bhasin the most important thing now is to make sure that the network is ready to meet the challenges of tomorrow, head-on. He explains, “At the moment, our industry is undergoing a lot of change. There are different opportunities and challenges, and it differs from market to market, country to country. The biggest challenge for agencies today is to be future-ready because the consumer-and-client expectations are changing rapidly. My aim will be to help future-proof the network and its agency brands and to continue to stay ahead of the curve.” Ashish asserts that DAN began to focus on becoming agile, and thus, adapting to market changes, rather quick. Consequently, the network is today is much more well-placed when compared to its opponents. “We are in a very good place compared to most of our competitors today. But we also want to make sure that we take full advantage of that,” he adds. For a while now, <keyword id="1187215" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Tim-Andree">Tim Andree</keyword>, Executive Chairman and CEO of Dentsu Aegis Network, has been talking about the agency’s ‘<keyword id="8342797" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="one-dentsu">One Dentsu</keyword>’ philosophy. His aim is to approach the entire organization as one group and encourage collaboration within the group, while focusing on one P&amp;L. Bhasin gives a lot of credit for the network’s recent success to this philosophy. “I've always believed in what we then used to call the ‘One DAN’ philosophy. Now, it manifests itself into our one P&amp;L philosophy. That's perhaps one of our single biggest strengths compared to any of our competitors, and it’s the most important area we need to work on. This philosophy helps us smash silos. We’ve done it within DAN and if we’re able to do it as One Dentsu, that’ll be really great,” he says. Expectations from the India business While this year proved to be sluggish in terms of growth for the overall industry, Bhasin shares that their attempt at future-proofing the network insulated some of the slowdown for them. “Relative to the market, we've had good growth. However, it has been slower than what we had anticipated in the beginning of the year. Towards the middle of the year, there was a noticeable slowdown, but we are relatively better off because of our high skew on digital,” says Bhasin. Currently, close to 48% of DAN India’s revenue comes from its Digital business. Commenting on his expectations from DAN India, Bhasin says that he can only expect the group to grow at a healthy rate every year. “If we talk about DAN India, I would expect every year to be better than the previous. It is a high growth market. 2019 will turn out to be another record year for us and I would definitely expect that 2020 should be well ahead of 2019. While this year we witnessed a slowdown, next year the advantage of a lower base should work in our favor,” he shares. He adds that his biggest expectation from India is that it will be a frontrunner of growth for the organization. “For a long time, we’ve been following the West when it comes to advertising. But today India is poised in a place where it can start leading many areas.” His voice is ringing with optimism. Currently, the India business is being led by Anand Bhadkamkar and Bhasin is confident that he’s the right choice for the role. “Anand has been a part of the organization for over a decade now. I truly think he is one of the finest managers we’ve got. He is calm and balanced, and you get a sense of confidence when you talk to him. He's got a sharp business sense and I have no doubt that he’ll do very well. He’s also has the ability to carry the team along very well and that will stand him in good stead,” says Bhasin. What lies ahead for DAN Bhasin shares that the rise of DAN as the No 2 Group in India in 2017 was one of the biggest landmarks for the network. He says, “While I won’t call it a vision, we had set a mission to becoming the No 2 group in India, and we reached that place way ahead of the anticipated time. We have come from nowhere. With just about 50 employees, and from a loss-making agency, we have now turned around to become a business that is growing fast, making high revenues and profits, and doing so, in a relatively short time.” However, he doesn’t want the achievements to make them complacent. “At that point of time, we wanted to be the network of the future. Hence, our focus was on future-proofing and the emphasis was on digital, search and performance. And we’ve achieved that. But it’s not the time to simply look back and rest on your laurels, particularly in this era of constantly changing client and consumer demands. We have to continue on our path of future-proofing. I believe going forward, MarTech, Data Management and CRM are the kind of areas that will become more and more important for our clients. We’ve been charting the path and defining the course. We did acquisitions at a scale that nobody had ever done. But I would hope that DAN India continues to be ahead of the curve. It's a continuum. We started on a journey and now we must make sure that we keep accelerating it,” says Bhasin.

We’re in a good place in comparison to our competitors and I hope DAN India continues to stay ahead of the curve: Ashish Bhasin

<ul><li>We bring to you a series of columns from industry experts, looking back at the last 10 years. The columns will explore how the media, marketing and <keyword id="34612" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="advertising-industry">advertising industry</keyword> has transformed in the last decade.</li><li>Last decade was full of ups and downs for the advertising industry. While a lot of things have changed, one thing has remained constant -- digital taking precedence in every aspect of the industry. </li><li>Ashish Bhasin, CEO - APAC and Chairman India, <keyword id="6368370" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="dentsu-aegis-network">Dentsu Aegis Network</keyword> Asia Pacific, commemorates how important this advent of digital media was for the advertising world, advertisements that stood out in the clutter, things that industry should have done differently, and trends to look forward to in 2020. </li></ul> The biggest, most noticeable trend in the last 10 years has been the advent of mobile along with digital and its impact, not just on advertising but overall on India's economic and social behavior. And if I had to pick one single biggest change in the last 10 years, it would be in the area of mobile and digital. It has spawned a completely new set of skills, a new set of requirements, a new pace, and that has happened in a young country where our average age is sub 27 years. Digital adaptability has really amazed us, particularly because the data prices fell, accessibility to smartphones became easier as they became cheaper. So, there's been a digital revolution in the last 10 years and not just advertising but consumer behavior has changed too. A lot of shopping is now done through e-commerce; if you're booking your movie tickets you will book digitally, banking has moved to digital too. Digital and mobile have permeated the day-to-day lives and behaviour of the consumer. However, in the bargain, the consumer today is also leaving a huge digital footprint in the form of data and therefore, the ability to handle data and data analytics has gained tremendous prominence. So, if I had to pick one area of change, I think I would pick this. One ad that stood out in the decade: 'Har ek friend zaroori hota hai' by Airtel was an ad that stood out for me because it encapsulated the best of both worlds. In some ways, it was representative of the digital era which is about mobile and telecommunication. And yet, at the same time, it held the value of social connection, friendship and touching human emotion. While everything else around us has changed, including advertising, the one thing which has not changed and hopefully will not change at least in my working life, is human emotions. We still laugh. We still cry. We still find something funny and something else sad and that ad captured both the progress of India and the human emotions very well. One thing that the Industry should have done differently: We should have paid a lot more attention on developing talent. Everybody did lip-service to it but most of our focus was to poach from one agency to the another. However, we did not invest enough on creating high quality talent and pivoting old talent to new skills. Trend to look forward to in 2020 Voice and performance will gain much more prominence than they did so far in the industry. With the emergence of OTT and data rates going down, there is a natural preference towards digitisation amongst younger audience. Equally, voice is so intuitive, it will be naturally driven more and more on a daily basis -- whether you are driving or use some voice assistant on your phone, which will be simplified with time. On the other hand, clients are also under-pressure to deliver results every quarter, hence, they will be far more interested in performance rather than just pure brand-building. - By Ashish Bhasin, CEO - APAC and Chairman India, Dentsu Aegis Network Asia Pacific

DAN’s Ashish Bhasin reflects on the decade that went by and how digitalisation shaped the advertising industry

<ul><li>As per <keyword id="6368370" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="dentsu-aegis-network">Dentsu Aegis Network</keyword>'s latest report, by 2020, advertising spends on Mobile devices is expected to grow by 41% to have a share of 52% to the digital advertising market, overtaking spends share on Desktop. </li><li>Furthermore, the expected spends on mobile devices will reach a share of 64% by 2022.</li></ul>Dentsu Aegis Network India has launched its fourth edition of digital report. It reveals that the Indian <keyword id="34612" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="advertising-industry">advertising industry</keyword> has grown at a rate of 9.4% over 2018 to reach ₹68,475 crore by the end of 2019. The industry will grow by 10.9% to reach ₹ 75,952 crore by the end of 2020. It is expected to grow at 11.83% CAGR to reach a market size of ₹1,33,921 crore by 2025. Anand Bhadkamkar, CEO, Dentsu Aegis Network India, “2019 was a challenging year for the Indian advertising industry as well. With the economic slowdown, advertisers decided to cut back on spends, consumers decided to wait-and-watch, market sentiments reached a new low and India’s Ad Expenditure (AdEx) witnessed a consequential fall. But even in the midst of it all, digital continued to grow. Digital is a masterstroke in advertising and Dentsu Aegis Network recognizes this strength. We also recognize the need for an industry level report that can give directions toward which this industry is moving. While with every new edition, the DAN Digital report has been upping its rank in quality, range and comprehensiveness, we welcome sincere feedback and inputs from the entire industry to help establish a robust eco-system for this fast growing and increasingly important industry channel, so that all of us can progress together!” Ashish Bhasin, CEO, APAC and Chairman, India - Dentsu Aegis Network, “The Media and Advertising industry is shifting at a rapid speed and Digital is certainly taking charge. Consumers are leaving behind huge digital footprints and there is a lot more emphasis on managing data and developing martech capabilities, now. 2020 is expected to witness a major change in advertising in India, with digital becoming a bigger medium. In fact, by 2021, it’s growth should surpass that of print. Yet, despite this progressive swing, the industry has failed to come together to agree upon a common measurement metric for digital. As leaders in digital, Dentsu Aegis Network today stands at the forefront of this evolution and understands the need to have more information on Digital. The DAN Digital report, now in its fourth edition, is exhaustive, systematic, thorough and meets this need gap brilliantly. The report has now become the most credible source of information when it comes to digital in India.” Key Highlights: <ol><li>The Indian advertising industry has grown at a rate of 9.4% over 2018 to reach Rs. 68,475 Crore by the end of 2019. The industry will grow by 10.9% to reach Rs. 75,952 Crore by the end of 2020. It is expected to grow at 11.83% CAGR to reach a market size of Rs. 1,33,921 Crore by 2025.</li><li>By the end of 2019 the digital advertising industry stands at Rs. 13,683 Crore, up at a rate of 26% from Rs. 10,859 Crore in 2018. It is expected to grow at 27% to reach Rs. 17,377 Crore by the end of 2020.</li><li>Advertising spends on <keyword id="124571" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="digital-media">Digital media</keyword> is expected to grow at a CAGR of 27.42% to cross the Rs. 50,000 Crore mark and reach an industry size of Rs. 58,550 Crore by the end of 2025. This sustained growth can be attributed to the technological advancements, improvements in data science &amp; analytics, introduction of policies &amp; regulations among others.</li><li>Television takes the largest share of media spends at 39% (Rs. 26,869 Crore) followed by print media (29%, Rs. 20,110 Crore) and Digital Media (20%, Rs. 13,683 Crore). In the year 2020, spends on Television media is expected to grow at 10% and its share will remain steady while that on Print media is expected to grow at 3% with this share declining to 27%.</li><li>Across various industry verticals, FMCG sector spends the highest by contributing 30% (Rs. 20,182 Crore) to the advertising industry. Next to FMCG stands with 10% contribution by E-commerce (Rs. 6,915 Crore) followed by Automotive sector (8%, Rs. 5,797 Crore).</li></ol>6. Among the various industry segments, FMCG has the highest expenditure on advertising i.e. 30% (Rs. 20,182 Crore) followed by E-commerce (10%) and Automotive segment. FMCG spends a large majority of their advertising budget on television (61%) while Retail, Automotive and Retail spend a large share of their advertising budget on Print. The biggest spenders on digital media are BFSI (42%), Consumer Durables (38%) and E-commerce (37%). 7. Advertising spends on Digital Media is led by Social media with the highest share of 28%, contributing Rs. 3,835 Crore to the Indian digital advertising pie. This is followed by spends on Paid search (23%), Online Video (22%) and Display media (21%). Display media, online video and social media are expected to have the fastest growth in 2020. The share of paid search is expected to reduce from 25% to 23% by the end of 2020. 8. FMCG segment spends a large share of their digital media budget on online video (36%), while E-commerce, consumer durables spend a mostly on paid search and social media. 9. By 2020, advertising spends on Mobile devices is expected to grow by 41% to have a share of 52% to the digital advertising market, overtaking spends share on Desktop. Furthermore, the expected spends on mobile devices will reach a share of 64% by 2022. 10. Advancements in marketing technologies and subsequent fusion with marketing creativity, along with the advent of 5G technology and increased adoption of E-commerce advertising will lead to the evolution of content for the next 500 million Internet users, thereby catapulting the digital media industry towards the Rs. 50,000 Crore milestone by the year 2025.

Indian advertising industry to grow by 10.9%; will reach ₹75,952 crore by the end of 2020: DAN Report

<ul><li>With the industry changing at a rapid pace, throwing a new set of challenges every day, experts are hoping that 2020 will be a game-changer that will help them redefine a lot of rules in advertising, with smarter marketing techniques. </li><li>We spoke to a few industry experts to identify these new opportunities that 2020 will bring forth for the industry and here is what they had to say. </li></ul>2019 was an interesting year -- full of ups and downs for the advertising, media and marketing industry. While we saw <keyword id="618493" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="digital-marketing">digital marketing</keyword> taking the center stage and brands experimenting with newer formats on the medium, the economic slowdown affected consumer sentiments, and naturally, the industry. However, during this period of tough economy, the industry tried to squeeze out the inefficiencies to make themselves more productive. As we enter 2020, the industry is hopeful to rise to its full strength together. They are all set to reap the benefits of AR and VR, voice, influencer marketing, and much more to stay ahead in the game. We spoke to a few industry experts to identify these new opportunities that 2020 will bring forth for the industry and here is what they had to say: Will Scougal, Director of International Creative Strategy, Snapchat: I don’t think there’ll be one dominant trend but several interlinked trends that have emerged over the last decade all achieving scale and creating real shifts in the way we experience and interact with brands. Over the last few years people have increasingly shifted their attention to mobile and, as they have become more confident navigating the world with their handset, they’re looking for quality experiences. What we’ve seen at Snapchat is that people are choosing to spend time adding a creative layer to their world through AR (Augmented Reality). As this format continues to scale, both on Snapchat and beyond, we are going to see more innovative, useful, and immersive experiences being built by brands embracing the marketing benefits of AR as a full funnel format. In addition to the growing popularity of AR, we are also going to see premium mobile video content gain more viewers. As audiences rise, we can expect to see more quality made-for-mobile shows from studios, publishers, entertainers and brands who are adapting to the mobile mindset of people. Ashish Bhasin, CEO - APAC and Chairman India, Dentsu Aegis Network Asia Pacific: Voice and performance will gain much more prominence than they did so far in the industry. With the emergence of OTT and data rates going down, there is a natural preference towards digitisation amongst younger audience. Equally, voice is so intuitive, it will be naturally driven more and more on a daily basis -- whether you are driving or use some voice assistant on your phone, which will be simplified with time. On the other hand, clients are also under-pressure to deliver results every quarter, hence, they will be far more interested in performance rather than just pure brand-building. Prathyusha Agarwal, Chief Marketing Officer, ZEEL: With consumption across platforms, the most dominating trend of 2020 would be brand and character love that transcends multiple screens. Viewers will share their dining tables and living rooms with our content on television satisfying the craving for anticipation of a new story, the first bite to savour the emotion and relationship with our characters every day. They will then stretch it across multiple screens and interactions binging on it, dipping in, dipping out and gorging on it through time and space. As broadcasters, we need to gear up our backend to tailor-make our content such that it is adept to the multiple platform front-end user interfaces. There is a shift needed from thinking of content development as an uncertain creative process to building a nuanced understanding the cultural core that makes viewers tick, what they want/ need, where do they need it and have the capability to evolve our craft to deliver that. To own multiple screens where stories and characters are loved beyond just television, content creators and curators, will have to manage the share of pie on each of platforms to maximise screen hours. Sameer Saxena, Chief Content Officer and Head of TVF: “For 2020, we will continue to strengthen our partnerships with OTT platforms and brands equally. We plan to venture into new genres like thrillers and romance amongst others. We will also explore non-fiction properties as there isn’t much happening in this space. Our aim is to release around 15 to 20 shows in the year including a few in regional languages starting with Marathi. In addition to new shows we're also planning the second seasons of some of our key shows like ‘Kota Factory’, ‘Cubicles’, and ‘Hostel Daze’.“ Dinesh Chhabra, CEO, Usha International: “The consumer durables sector has shown a consistent growth and Usha International Ltd leads this growth from the front riding on new product launches like the Bloom series and Racer fans, as well as the introduction of a whole slew of colorful new kitchen appliances. During this period of tough economy, Usha tightened its operating belt to squeeze out the inefficiencies to make itself leaner and more productive. Usha believes in keeping the customer at the core of our businesses and hence ensures that all the new products that we have recently developed keeping consumer insights in mind and built to fulfil their needs, thereby transforming their daily lives. We expect the New Year to fuel consumer demand and a stabilization of growth patterns in coming quarters. We, at Usha, will continue in our journey to launch new products and innovative technologies, and improve the depth of our distribution penetration specifically in the geographies which are growing at a GDP growth higher than the national average.” Koshy George, Chief Marketing Officer, Marico Limited: One big trend for me will continue to be digital. You will continue to find a lot more digital adoption because the rates, while they have gone up, continue to be rock bottom in the country. And you will find that a lot of time that consumers spend will move into digital and hence the focus to continue to build brands and invest there will be one big trend that we look at. And as part of that, there are a lot of medium like TikTok that have suddenly come and exploded out of nowhere. We have recently worked with the platform and seen really good results so that'll be an area of focus. Secondly, while the economy has been witnessing a slowdown, there is still a room for a lot of premiumization. And there's a big trend in sustainability that is slowly but surely picking up momentum and is something we will see more of in 2020. Amer Jaleel, Group CCO &amp; Chairman, MullenLowe Lintas Group: I see content saturation coming. We have to start seeing consumers as audiences in the Media Age. Everybody is creating content with ease through apps. While this explosion leads to satisfying the creative urge among people and that surely is a good thing, but coupled with the march of platforms and production, this is leading very rapidly to content fatigue. Once we see our consumers as an audience, we have to account for the fatigue they have to overcome to see the frankly poor quality of brand content that most of us are putting out. The only way marketeers and their brand partners have is to be ahead of and fresher than the content that's being dished out. I can clearly see that the phrase 'break the clutter' is outdated. We will have to preempt all the evolution of what we call clutter and be ahead of the thinking of the clutter makers. Gurmeet Singh, Chairman and Managing Director, Johnson Controls-Hitachi Air Conditioning India: To stand out from the crowd, companies are putting the customer at the heart of everything they do. This has led to the emergence of exceptional customer experiences. Marketing in the modern era has to play a significant role in shaping these experiences. Artificial Intelligence is certainly going to be a game changer driving the marketing landscape in 2020. This Next-gen technology will create new avenues of effective marketing and customer experiences. One of the trendiest topics across the world, both in B2B and B2C spaces, AI is going to take the charge as it holds the power to evolve businesses, accelerate customer experiences and boost sales like never before. Audience segmentation with in-depth understanding of the demand is key to success in any B2B module. Here AI will empower and align business, marketing and sales teams to accurately analyze the demand touchpoints much before a lead generation. This will ensure faster and concrete conversion of leads resulting in enriched customer experiences. Artificial Intelligence can play a significant role in influencing marketing strategies and predicting favorable product and service outcome. With AI things will become faster, easier, more convenient and affordable for business ecosystem to meet the ever evolving customer expectations. New India’s smart customer is globally connected and is curious to explore, experiment and experience. Today, customers are considering exceptional experiences as a critical aspect of their buying decision. In the B2C segment, AI has a huge role to play. It is also the responsibility of businesses and marketers to ethically leverage the power of this impactful tool. Without invading the privacy of customers, AI should aim at significantly providing intelligent and informed customer experiences by equipping marketing and product teams to effectively analyse consumer behavior, acceptance, demand and delivery points. This will ensure a smooth end to end customer journey that is more customized and interactive in the most natural and ethical manner. AI will also support the marketing landscape by enabling powerful and high-impact consumer insights to disrupt customer satisfaction and enhance success factors of product and service innovations. TikTok spokesperson: In 2019, we saw a drastic shift in online content consumption behavior. As the internet continued to democratize, Indians moved beyond the traditional consumption of entertainment content and are now avidly looking at videos to educate themselves on variety of topics such as self-improvement, health, fitness, e- learning languages, among others. In 2020, we foresee this trend to grow, with brands and NGOs leveraging short video formats with platforms such as TikTok. At the same time, given shorter attention spans, it will be critical for content to break through the clutter, be creative, fun and engaging, in order to attract audiences. Shamsuddin Jasani, Group MD, Isobar South Asia: Voice as a technology is coming into its own and is going to be a big trend in 2020. With Hindi as a language being made available on Alexa, it will open up huge opportunities in the future. Secondly, with advancements in technology, augmented reality is going to take off in a big way. And the third biggest trend will again come from the world of vernacular content. Local languages are going to explode as we go into 2020 and you will see more OTT players investing on local languages. Pratik Gupta, Co-founder, FoxyMoron: "2020 will be the year for digitally evolved agencies and digitally involved clients. Hyper-personalization of content through all digital platforms should be the biggest trend this year. Along with the innovation on digital; Voice, OTT, Social, Progressive Web Apps, the use of Hyper-Personalisation are going to be imperative. While the entire ecosystem believes that the consumer does not want to see advertisements, I believe that ads &amp; communication served to an exposed cookie pool at the right time and at the right place is the future. This year we will be working on creating workflows, technologies and teams to cater to this need for brands and consumers alike." Also see: 
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The top trends that will dominate the advertising, marketing and media industry in 2020

<ul><li>Finance Minister <keyword id="129243" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Nirmala-Sitharaman">Nirmala Sitharaman</keyword> on Saturday announced <keyword id="8192304" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="union-budget-2020">Union Budget 2020</keyword> which gave an impetus to the country’s digital ecosystem.</li><li>The budget came up with an optional new tax regime which could lead to lower taxes for taxpayers.</li><li>She also acknowledged the role entrepreneurs have played in creating more jobs and capital for the country.</li></ul>As Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the Union Budget on Saturday, the industry came together to applaud the government’s digital push with the announcement of the setting aside of Rs 6,000 crore for BharatNet, to ensure low cost internet reaches every household in the country. The government also announced an optional new tax slab which has lower tax rates, although the people opting for the new tax regime will not get any exemptions. The FM also spoke about the role that entrepreneurs have played in creating jobs and bringing in more capital to the country. However, there were a few industry experts who felt that the expectations from ‘the budget were much higher and it feels like a missed opportunity.’ Here are the views of some experts: Ashish Bhasin, CEO, APAC and Chairman, India - Dentsu Aegis Network: I think this is a good budget in some ways because it has attempted to put money in the hands of the middle class through rationalisation of tax rates as well as has concentrated on looking after the agricultural sector, including introduction of best practises like storage for producers and other measures. However, I do feel that the expectations from the budget were much more and it does feel like a bit of a missed opportunity. While it is good to see that the dividend distribution tax has been abolished, I expected more on the rationalisation of direct taxes, particularly the cess introduced over and above the tax rates. It is good to see efforts being made to encourage new-age skill development as well as helping the start-ups and what's particularly interesting is the proposal to set up data centre farms all over the country. This will prepare India for the economy of tomorrow. It is also good to see attempts at simplification of taxation through digitisation but the proof of the pudding will lie in seeing its implementation on ground. It would be fair to say that at best it is a mixed budget and while there are some encouraging decisions, enough does not seem to have been done for the situation the economy is in. RS Sodhi, Managing Director of the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation: <keyword id="7836802" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Budget-2020">Budget 2020</keyword>, an excellent move, will bring more investments in the dairy sector which will increase the farmers’ bargaining power to get better prices for their produce, if done properly it will create 80 lakh jobs in Rural India and 16 lakh jobs in Urban India. Anand Bhadkamkar, CEO, Dentsu Aegis Network (DAN) India: The budget has provided relief to the middle class with lower tax rates which is a welcome move, as it will provide more liquidity. On direct taxes, the abolition of DDT and introduction of a tax dispute resolution scheme is a welcome step alongside tax reliefs for startups. The budget is focusing on easing and simplification of compliance, with changes in corporate laws as well as in GST and direct taxes. However, I was expecting further simplification of cess and surcharges beyond tax rates across slabs. The proposals for development of road infrastructure, setting up data centre parks and skill development initiatives are welcome steps in addition to allocations for social welfare schemes. However, the expectations from the budget were high on the background of current economic slowdown, and as such seems to be short on matching those expectations, with no specific industry sector focused sops to provide stimulus. While the budget shows focus on long term growth and social development, overall in the current scenario it looks like a mixed budget, falling a bit short of market expectations of more corrective measures. Mukesh Kalra, Founder &amp; CEO - ETMONEY: The Finance Minister's proposal to introduce a new tax regime is a great step towards giving equal chance to every Indian in the lower income segment to maximize their post tax incomes. In the old regime, an individual supporting a larger family &amp; negligible savings was forced to pay higher tax compared to an individual supporting a smaller family or one with no dependents. This created disparity when it came to effective taxation for the former group. In the new regime, the disparity ends &amp; also frees up income in the hands of individuals to give a boost to consumption. Nishant Pitti, Co-Founder &amp; CEO, EaseMyTrip: In tune with the present government vision to encourage Indian travellers to travel more and contribute towards the nation's growth, this budget takes it a step ahead. The budget has focused on promoting tourism &amp; travel with an overall budget of Rs. 2500 crores in year 2020-21. Government aims to develop 100 more domestic airports under the UDAN scheme. To promote travel via railways, the government will focus on more Tejas type trains that will connect tourist destinations in India. The Finance Minister has also laid stress on the development of archaeological sites into iconic sites with on-site museums. Five such sites are- Rakhigarhi, Hastinapur, Shivsagar, Dholavira and Adichanallur. Government has also announced the renovation of 4 key museums. Rs,150 crore have been allocated for the ministry of culture in 2020-21. We are hopeful that this budget will open new avenues for the travel industry. Sabyasachi Mitter, Founder and Managing Director of Fulcro: The key takeaway for me has been the simplification of tax regimes as well as giving a boost to consumer and investor sentiments. The removal of DDT is a significant move and long overdue as it effectively leads to double taxation. Simplification of personal Income Tax rates by giving the option to tax payers to avail the reduced tax rates by not availing deductions is a welcome step towards a future free from the historical legacy of compliance issues. The focus on encouraging start-ups is also welcome, both in terms of giving relief to the ESOP taxation which has been increased to 5 years. The turnover of availing 100% income Tax benefit has also seen two key changes; increasing the turnover threshold to 100 crores as well as increasing the block of years from which to avail three years of exemption to 10 years from the 7 years presently. All of these will increase the cash in hand of corporates, individuals as well MSMEs leading to a spur in demand. Specifically to the digital ecosystem the aggressive plans to increase the coverage of Fiber to Home being extended to 1 lakh gram panchayats will give a significant boost to the digital ecosystem. The recognition of the need for data and therefore the policy announcement on data centre parks is also a welcome move. Anish Sarkar, CEO, Sodexo BRS India: Sodexo always believes in giving our consumers the freedom of choice; the tax proposals in the budget are also on a similar philosophy. We believe that consumers should have a higher purchasing power – while this announcement will give them the power to choose their tax structure, our consumer base will continue to benefit from the current regime. Sodexo’s solution suite goes much beyond tax-saving products; driving the digitization of corporate cafeterias &amp; factories along with digitizing expense management to achieve workplace efficiency. We are very focussed on enhancing the employee experience of our clients by creating an ecosystem of value-added benefits much beyond tax savings. Devendra Shah, Chairman, Parag Milk Foods Ltd: We happily welcome the government's big push to the India's dairy industry. We are excited to be a part of the government's plan to double India’s milk processing capacity. Strategic measures like increasing the coverage of artificial insemination and eliminating Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) and Brucellosis in cattle will result in higher yields. While such measures are welcomed, the dairy sector also needs to ensure the yearlong availability of green fodder. We can currently import the green fodder from Australia, Canada and USA. All these collectively help in Increasing milk consumption amongst urban and rural consumers thus attracting new investments and jobs. Navin Khemka, CEO, Mediacom South Asia: What is required is more purchasing power to the Indian middle class. This will help boost demand in the sluggish economy. I hope the investment in infrastructure and kisan express helps in achieving this objective in the long run. Short term, however, I think this budget is status quo. Demand growth could be sluggish and this could continue to impact media investments by corporates. Indroneel Dutt, CFO, Cleartrip: The government has backed its vision to turn India into one of the world’s top tourism hubs by allocating INR 2,500 crore for promoting tourism in general and setting aside a sum of INR 3100 crore for the Culture Ministry to boost regional tourism. What would be wonderful is to have an empowered nodal body comprising of the Govt / OTA / airline, hotel and other industry representatives with the objective of promoting discoverability, ease of booking and fulfilment of our cultural, natural and heritage sites. Introduction of more Tejas Express type trains and the inauguration of several culturally-significant archaeological sites are other much-needed moves. We also welcome the Hon’ble FM’s proposal to develop 100 more airports as well as the doubling of the airline fleet by 2024. This calls for skilled manpower development in parallel. The aim to double the fleet to 1200 in the next 3 years will certainly accelerate the passenger growth rate. Ramesh Kaushik, VP Brand Experience at Blackberrys: The government remains committed to accelerate consumption in budget 2020. Government measures of reducing corporate tax and initiatives to boost MSME sector will definitely help accelerate industrial and corporate growth in the country. Measures like simplifying GST and income tax relief are sure to give requisite push to consumer consumption and demand thereby accelerating growth across industries. Additionally allocation of funds for infrastructural development is a welcome move clearing path for expansion. We expect more measures/announcements specific to the retail industry from the government in the coming future that will give the right impetus to the industry. Sameer Makani, Co-Founder and Managing Director, Makani Creatives: Budget 2020 aims at the betterment of all sections of the society. The key highlight is certainly the tax regime where the government has proposed alternative tax policies and new rates to benefit the taxpayers. The vision to improve the start-up scenario in the country will help in creating more job opportunities and further ensuring the economic growth. The Skill development programme will enable overall personality development In comparison to budget 2019, MSMEs will experience a 71% rise over and above the budgetary allocation. Sudhanshu Agarwal, Founder &amp; Director, Citykart: The announcements made by the government in Union Budget 2020 are a promising move to boost the income and purchasing power of people. So far, the rollout of GST has resulted in gains of about Rs.1 lakh crores to consumers, which is likely to increase further with revised GST laws being implemented from April 2020. Simplification of GST norms will be significant in inspiring consumer demand &amp; consumptions and spur industrial growth. Additionally, allocation of Rs.100 lakh crores for infrastructure development also opens growth prospects for the brands in non-metro cities. However, we feel specific measures pertaining to the retail sector have still not been fully addressed in the budget. Kunal Lakhara, VP of Finance and Operations, Pocket Aces: Budget 2020's revised fiscal deficit target of 3.8% of the GDP seems more realistic and focus on spends/benefits was required to boost the economy. The thrust on entrepreneurship and tax regulations for both startups and taxpayers is a move in the right direction. India is the third largest startup hub globally and the announcement of an investment clearance cell to provide end-to-end support to startup founders will encourage more youth to be job creators. Further, the ability to defer taxes on ESOPs will democratise wealth creation for startup employees, ensuring the right talent is benefitted. Finally, the decision to grant 100% tax exemptions to sovereign wealth funds on their investment in priority sectors will provide the much needed funding boost to the sector and create value in the longer run. Sahil Vaidya, Co- Founder &amp; Director, The Minimalist: Following the announcement of the Union Budget 2020, one thing is certain, is that the Government is heavily focused on becoming an entrepreneurial superpower. By investing in the MSME sector, the Government’s support towards new companies will go a long way in producing high growth business. Furthermore, the tax waiver on ESOPs will enable more talent to place their bets on early stage disruptive start-ups, which have the potential to become the corporates of tomorrow. Among other sectors, the Budget 2020’s focus on start-ups and technology will be a boost to companies that are doing some cutting edge design thinking to enable the best of digital products for a booming digital economy. Sanil Jain, Co-founder, CupShup: The start-up ecosystem in India is not more than a decade old and has come a long way to become the third largest in the world after USA and China. 2019 was not what we can call a good economic growth year but this budget has definitely brought some relief to start-ups. The implementation of the Investment Advisory Cell will aid new start-ups. Deferring the Taxation on ESOPs is definitely a big win as it will go a long way in acquiring and retaining quality talent. While on the other hand, decreasing direct tax to a historic low of 22% will boost export opportunities and drive growth across various industries. Nikhil Mathur, Managing Director – India, GfK: The proposal to boost rural economy, infrastructure and enhance purchasing power of middle class, if implemented well would certainly be fruitful. It could further improve the consumption of consumer durable and electronics. As per GfK data, CE-MDA category registered a volume growth of ~9% in 2019/2018. I think the market is expected to grow in the back of technology companies and given the state of economy we can be hopeful of a better future. Besides, encouraging local manufacturing of mobile phones and semiconductors may fuel the ‘Make in India’ vision.

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