India's software & hardware export to top $18 B

Tuesday, March 22, 2005

CHENNAI:The total export of software and hardware from India is expected to reach around $ 18 billion by the end of current financial year, a senior government official said.

Brijesh Kumar, Secretary - Information Technology, Ministry of Communications and IT said, "In 2003-04, IT exports stood at $ 13 billion and by the end of this fiscal it is expected to reach about $18 billion."

Total revenue of the Indian software and services industry is likely to grow to about $22 billion, with domestic market revenues of $5 billion during the current year from $16 billion including four billion dollar domestic revenues last year.

"India had boasted of vendor sophistication with over 200 companies being quality accredited and serving the needs of over 250 Fortune 500 companies. Of the 116 software companies in the world that have achieved the SEI CMM Level 5 certification, 80 are based in India, he added.

Kumar said that the country should diversify and build alternate markets since over 60 per cent of our software exports were destined to US.

"The software sector till now confined to three our four major centers and the we have to develop more centers of excellence in IT to enhance global share," he said.

"There is a scope for outsourcing within the country. It can help in bringing down the costs besides generating employment in second and third tier cities," he said adding, "the IT sector is targeting to reach $50 billion by 2008. This will mean a five per cent global IT market share. Currently, the share is two per cent."