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India's information technology and IT-enabled
services industry will more than double in size by 2012, led by a
fast-expanding domestic market, according to a report released
Wednesday.
The industry's revenues, including those from export markets, will
reach 5.3 trillion rupees (132 billion dollars) in 2012, from 2.46
trillion rupees last year, said the report by market-research firm
IDC India.
Two trillion rupees of that will come from a domestic market, which
is growing at an average annual rate of 18.4 percent, outpacing
overall industry growth of 16.5 percent, it said.
India's expanding economy, growing annually by nearly nine percent,
is spurring domestic IT spending as companies upgrade technologies
to stay competitive and consumers log onto the Internet on personal
computers and mobile devices.
The forecast growth rates will be achieved on the back of the
industry offering "innovative services to the evolving domestic
buyers," said IDC India country manager Kapil Dev Singh in a
statement.
The domestic market has largely been ignored by an industry that has
boomed on work from Western firms trying to cut costs by taking
advantage of India's English-speaking, computer-savvy graduates who
work for lower salaries.
Last year, India's overall IT and IT-enabled services industry
logged 22.4 percent growth in revenue to 2.46 trillion rupees, of
which the domestic market contributed 900 billion rupees, according
to IDC India.
In 2008, the market researcher expects the overall industry to grow
20 percent, with the Indian market expanding 22.4 percent,
maintaining its growth rate last year.
Indian IT companies, including software makers, are grappling with a
slowdown in demand from the United States, their biggest market. US
companies are paring technology budgets in the wake of a downturn in
the world's biggest economy.
The slowdown follows a more than 12 percent appreciation last year
in the value of the rupee against the dollar, which reduced the
local equivalent of every dollar earned by exporters such as
software makers Tata Consultancy and Wipro.
That has forced exporters to look at non-American geographies and
the home market to diversify risk and maintain growth.
-- AFP
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