Resilient Indian IT-BPO sees modest growth; better times ahead: Nasscom

The Indian IT-BPO sector clocked $58.8 billion in revenues in FY08-09, up from $52 billion in FY07-08, according to the Nasscom annual survey results released at its human resources summit held in Chennai on Wednesday.

The information technology sector, a major driver of India's economic growth, is projected to post single-digit growth of 4-7 per cent for exports of its software and related services during 2009-10.

Export revenues for IT-BPO industry grew by 16.3 per cent with revenues of $46.3 billion in FY08-09, up from $40.4 billion in FY07-08. The domestic segment grew by 21 per cent to Rs570 billion in FY08-09 from Rs470 billion in FY07-08. Nasscom had projected a growth of 22 per cent in mid-2008, which it subsequently scaled down to 16 per cent.

''We predicted double-digit growth, albeit scaled down, in the middle of the slowdown, because we were still delivering for contracts made in previous years,'' said Nasscom chairman Pramod Bhasin. ''But, now, we are projecting slower growth, thanks to the dwindling contracts during the slowdown last year.''

He also said that MNCs and large companies had contributed significantly to the figures. As a case in point, he pointed out that adjusting for Satyam's revenues, export growth in 2009 comes to 16.3 per cent. Cross currency impact accounted for a further 2.4 per cent of suppression in growth.

In export segment, IT services grew by 14.7 per cent to $26.5 billion; BPO exports went up by 16.5 per cent at $12.7 billion. Engineering services and product exports clocked revenues of $7.1 billion, growing at 11 per cent in FY08-09.