IT industry to cross USD 100 bn mark: NASSCOM

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SME Times News Bureau | 09 Feb, 2012
India's IT and related services sector will cross USD 100 billion revenue mark in the current fiscal, but growth may dip in 2012-13 with rising global economic uncertainties coupled with domestic policy paralysis, said industry body NASSCOM Wednesday.

"This has been a very good year (2011-12) for the industry. We have seen a growth of 16.3 percent. This (fiscal) year the industry will cross USD 100 billion mark," said National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) chairman Rajendra S. Pawar.

According to the industry group, total revenue of the sector will reach USD 101 billion comprising of USD 69 billion in exports and USD 32 billion sales in the domestic market.

Pawar cautioned that growing global economic uncertainities caused by various factors like the US presidential elections, eurozone debt crisis and a domestic policy paralysis can dampen the industry's growth.

For 2012-13 fiscal, Pawar expected the growth to be in the range of 11-14 percent but said that the sector can reach its target of USD 225 billion in revenue by 2020 if the industry grows at an annual rate of 13 percent from next fiscal onwards.

"We can meet the Vision 2020 target of USD 225 billion if we grow at a compounded annual growth rate of 13 per cent from next fiscal."

Meanwhile, NASSCOM president Som Mittal called upon the government to provide the industry with support like being given by competing countries like China, Brazil, the Phillipines, South Africa and Egypt.

"There is policy paralysis in India. There is no road map on DTC (direct tax code), GST (general sales tax) and SEZ (special economic zone) issues. There is also increased tax activism which makes us a soft targets," Mittal said.

On hiring sentiments in the industry, NASSCOM said it expected the sentiment to be damp at 1 lakh jobs in the coming fiscal from 1.2 lakh new jobs projected to have been created in 2011-12.

On wage front, the industry association expects an increase of around eight-ten percent in the coming fiscal from 10-14 percent in the current fiscal.