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Real estate, cement, steel, and construction equipment industries have been in the news lately鈥攎ostly because their movements have indicated to us how the post-pandemic recovery is likely to be. In a webinar hosted by Construction World and FIRST Construction Council yesterday, experts churned the Union Budget 2021-22 to decipher what it means for those industries. They also decoded what it means in funding and implementation of projects.

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听 and organised a webinar with prominent analysts and industry captains on February 2, the day after Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman鈥檚 Union Budget 2021-22 speech.

The speakers were:

路听听听听听听听听 Deepto Roy, Partner, Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co

路听听听听听听听听 Dip Kishore Sen, Director, L&T

路听听听听听听听听 Hemal Mehta, Partner, Deloitte India

路听听听听听听听听 Pradeep Singh, former Vice Chairman & MD, IDFC Projects

路听听听听听听听听 Sandeep Singh, MD, Tata Hitachi

路听听听听听听听听 Sumit Banerjee, former MD & CEO, ACC Ltd

The 90-minute session was moderated by Construction World鈥檚 Editor-in-Chief Pratap Padode.

The pandemic wreaked havoc on every sector of the economy, leading to two consecutive quarters of contraction in GDP by -23.9% and -7.5%. The industry was looking for path-breaking announcements from the Union Budget 2021-22. For a while now, the industry has aspired for the government鈥檚 nurturing hand on both industry and consumer, by both spending and enabling.

Were these aspirations fulfilled? What were some of the hits and more importantly, some misses? What are some loopholes and potential pitfalls? The webinar touched upon some of the sectors and industries that are especially focus, either as bellwethers of the economy or as projectors of what impacts the Budget will have on them.

Did real estate miss out?

Is steel made of steely grit and are new gains cemented?

Will construction equipment move towards better efficiency?

Budgets over the years have emphasised on infrastructure, but this budget hit the bull鈥檚 eye by specifically allocating funds for infrastructure. Governments have dabbled in public-private partnerships (PPP) in infrastructure projects, and experimented with different methods of the workings of PPP. Arbitration mechanisms take forever, and often, government-related issues such as land acquisition are tricky for the private contractors and partners.

What about accelerating project execution?

Will the new revenue mobilisation strategy work?

Has arbitration worked well or should we move to mediation?