Indian government's IT spending to reach $7.2 bn in 2015

The Indian government's IT spending in India will total $7.2 billion in 2015, a 5-per cent rise over 2014, according to Gartner Inc. Government IT spending is on pace to total $6.6 billion in 2014.

This forecast includes spending by the government sector (state and regional government and central government agencies) on internal IT (including personnel), hardware, software, external IT services and telecommunications.

''IT services, which includes consulting, implementation, IT outsourcing and business process outsourcing, will be the largest overall IT government spending category through 2018. IT services are expected to grow 10.9 per cent in 2014 to reach $1.8 billion in 2015, up from $1.6 billion in 2014 – with the business process outsourcing segment growing 22 per cent during 2014,'' said Anurag Gupta, research director at Gartner.

Internal services will achieve a growth rate of 9.9 per cent in 2014. Internal services refer to salaries and benefits paid to the information services staff of an organization. The information services staff includes all company employees that plan, develop, implement and maintain information systems.

The software market will achieve the highest growth rate within spending categories. Government spending on software will total $788 million in 2014, and it will grow to $910 million in 2015. Software spending will be led by growth in vertical specific software (software applications that are unique to a vertical industry. These are stand-alone applications that are not modules or extensions of horizontal applications).

''India has a new government in power with the underlying promise of 'Less Government & More Governance'. The delivery of a citizen-centric and transparent government is only possible through the extensive use of technology and by leveraging digital government,'' said Gupta.

''India has ambitious plans to build several smart cities, and this will create new opportunities,'' he added.