National Association of Software and Services Companies,(Nasscom) said that India's software and services exports will top $31 billion this year and are on track to nearly double by 2010. Software and services exports were expected to show growth of 32.6%.
"We are confident that the industry will achieve its ambitious target of $60 billion in exports in 2010," said Nasscom president Kieron Karnik. Optimistic market signs indicate there is more headroom for growth through large unaddressed areas and the possible unbundling of IT-BPO (business process outsourcing) mega-deals with increasing shares of global delivery," he said.
"The other positive sign is the maturing of the domestic IT industry. For the first time ever, the domestic industry has broken out of the hardware-linked growth pattern," Karnik said.
India has become the world's back office, as Western firms set up call centers, number-crunching and software development outlets. Companies routinely cut costs by shifting their work to India to tap its pool of English-speaking, computer-savvy graduates at lower salaries than counterparts abroad. While the U.S. and Britain remain the dominant markets for exports, revenues from newer markets are growing rapidly, NASSCOM added.
The Indian information technology industry has grown its revenues 10-fold in the past decade to $47.8 billion in 2006-07 from $4.8 billion 1997-98, NASSCOM added. It has grown nearly 28% in this fiscal year. Its contribution to India's gross domestic product is estimated to have grown to 5.4% this year from 4.8% last year.
While service and software exports remain the mainstay of the sector, there is more offshore product development and engineering services. Information processing is growing at 22-23% and is expected to report $4.9 billion in exports in this financial year.
The group said multinational corporation investments announced during this financial year reached a record of more than $10 billion.
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2007
