about information technology

Information Technology
Last Updated: December 27, 2007

With US$ 40 billion in revenues, the Indian information technology sector continues to be one of the sunshine sectors of the Indian economy. With a growth figure of 30.7 per cent in 2006-07, the sector has left its global counterpart, which grew at 10 per cent, way behind. The National Association of Software Services Companies (NASSCOM) estimates revenues of US$ 49-50 billion in 2007-08 at a growth rate of 24-27 per cent.
India has emerged as the fastest growing IT hub in the world, its growth dominated by IT software and services such as Custom Application Development and Maintenance (CADM), System Integration, IT Consulting, Application Management, Infrastructure Management Services, Software testing, Service-oriented architecture and Web services.
Even in the event of a falling dollar and a strengthened rupee, India is the undisputed leader in offshore services, accounting for 65-70 per cent of the global offshoring pie. It tops the list of 30 countries on criteria such as language, Government support, labour pool, infrastructure, educational system, cost, political and economic environment, cultural compatibility, global and legal maturity, and data and intellectual property security and privacy, says Gartner.
In 2006-07, software and services exports grew by 33 per cent to register a revenue of US$ 31.4 billion, whereas the domestic segment grew by 23 per cent to US$ 8.2 billion. Within exports, IT services touched US$ 18 billion, a growth of 35.5 per cent. The country's IT exports have, in fact, come quite far, starting from a few million dollars in the early 90s. The Government expects the exports turnover to touch US$ 80 billion by 2011, growing at an annual rate of 30 pc per annum.
Multinationals in India
Apart from being a great offshoring destination, India offers a market with very high returns. Evidently, multinationals are investing aggressively in their India units. For instance, IBM has the biggest staff in India. According to industry estimates, the turnovers of firms such as Dell, Intel, Microsoft and IBM are way beyond the half-billion dollar mark. Cisco is believed to have crossed the billion-dollar mark in domestic sales in 2006-07, and HP India is said to have an India turnover of around US$ 2.5 billion.
IBM India has entered a US$ 600 million, five-year deal with Vodafone Essar. It is also working with Bharti Enterprises and Idea, and other Indian corporates. With its revenues from these deals crossing the US$ 2-billion mark, the company plans to invest US$ 6 billion in India over the next three years.
Microsoft India, which is the only subsidiary outside the US where Microsoft has an end-to-end presence through six business units, now reports directly to the company's headquarters in Redmond. With an estimated turnover of over US$ 763 million, the company has reworked its pricing strategy and is localising its offerings. Its Windows operating system (OS) - XP and now Vista - still has over 90 per cent market share and is a leading player in the server OS segment, too.
Like IBM, the US$ 57-billion Dell has its largest employee base (13,000) outside of the US in India. In Q3 of FY 2008, the company posted a 47 per cent growth in revenues in India. In comparison, its China chapter registered growth of 22 per cent. Its India turnover stands at around US$ 600 million.
Cisco, which has already committed US$ 1.1 billion to India, will be launching a huge brand re-positioning campaign in the first quarter of CY2008. It has already sold over 200,000 IP phones over the last few years.
Intel India is banking on the mobility boom (laptops, mobiles), gaming, SMEs, e-governance, education initiatives and low-cost computing initiatives in India. It is also banking on its WiMax forays in the country.
For Lenovo, India is the only PC market, other than China, that contributes around 8 per cent of its revenue in the APAC region.
Oracle India controls about two-thirds of the domestic database market and is strong in the e-governance area.
Nortel has bagged multi-million dollar deals to provide solutions to Indian airports and metro-ethernet solutions to the Indian Railways