Surprise growth in India's software outsourcing

BANGALORE, India: India's export revenues from software outsourcing have exceeded targets and will reach US$17.3 billion (euro13.05 billion) in the fiscal year ending March 2005, the country's software trade body said Friday.

In addition, the total number of people employed in India's outsourcing industry has reached 1 million for the first time, the National buttociation of Software and Service Companies said.

"Our exports gained momentum this year with more companies realizing the value of global sourcing,'' the buttociation's president, Kiran Karnik, told The buttociated Press.

In the year to March 2004, India's software exports stood at US$12.8 billion and the industry employed 770,000 people.

When the current fiscal year began, India forecast revenues of US$16 billion (euro12.07 billion) from software exports for the period, given the backlash in the United States against outsourcing work to India and other developing nations.

"However, the anti-outsourcing wave has decreased, if not gone away fully. We managed to grow faster than our rivals like Ireland and Russia,'' Karnik said.

India's domestic market for the current fiscal year has been valued at US$4.9 billion (euro3.7 billion), up from US$3.9 billion a year earlier.

Thus, the total annual value of India's software industry, including exports and local sales, is nearly 1 trillion rupees (US$22.2 billion; euro16.74 billion).

Scores of Western firms farm outsource software and engineering design, and back-office functions to companies in countries such as India where labor costs are lower.--AP