India is emerging as a global power in Information Technology (IT) as one of the largest generators and exporters of software in the world. The year 2008- 09 was marked by unprecedented global economic crisis. In spite of, this uncertain global outlook, the Indian Information Technology-Business Process Outsourcing (IT-Bop) industry was able to achieve sustain effort in the fiscal year 2008-09. The revenue aggregate of IT-Bfro-irtdGstry is expected to grow by over 12 per cent and reach US $ 71.7 billion in 2008-09 as compared to US $ 64 billion in 2007-08.
Industry performance was marked by sustained double-digit revenue growth, steady expansion into newer service-lines and increased geographic penetration. The Indian software and services exports including ITES-Bop exports is estimated at US $ 47 billion in 2008-09, as compared to US $ 40.4 billion in 2007-08, an increase of 16.3 per cent. The IT services exports is estimated to be US $ 26.9 billion on 2008-09 as compared to US$23.1 billion in 2007-08, showing a growth of 16.5 percent in 2008-09, a year -on-year (Y-o-Y) growth of over 17.4 percent.
In order to give a concerted and focused approach to developing this sector further, the Government of India set up a new Ministry of Information Technology (MIT) on 15th October, 1999 to be the nodal institutional mechanism for facilitating all the initiatives in the Central government, the State governments, academia and the private sector for all-round growth of IT. The Ministry seeks to play the role of pro-active facilitator, motivator and promoter and to launch initiatives to ensure the spread of IT to the masses for enabling speedy IT-led development.
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To make India a global power in Information Technology is the new IT vision, which means: Creation of Wealth, Employment Generation and IT-led Economic Growth.
To enable commensurate growth of the telecom infrastructure, the steps taken are: increased participation of the private sector in providing fixed, mobile and satellite-based communication infrastructure in the country; revenue-based sharing with up to 74 per cent equity investment in satellite-based projects; liberalized access to foreign satellites; opening up of international gateways and laying of an optic-fiber network for promoting broad-band Internet services.
The focus is on enabling concerted convergence of IT, telecom, consumer electronics and entertainment media. Through the IT-BPO sector is export- driven, the domestic market is also significant. The revenue from the domestic market (IT Services and ITES-BPO) is also expected to grow to about US$12.5
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billion in the year 2008-09 as compared to US $ 11.7 billion in 2007-08 an anticipated growth of about 6.8 per cent. BPO demand in the domestic market has witnessed noticeable growth over the past few years.
The advancement in information technology (IT) has a profound impact on the country’s economy and thus on the quality of human life. The convergence of computer, communications and content creates tremendous opportunities as well as challenges. The IT revolution has opened up new possibilities of economic and social transformations from which both developed and developing countries can potentially benefit.
The total IT Software and Services employment is expected to reach 2.23 million in 2008-09 (excluding employment in hardware sector), as against 2.01 million in 2007-08, a growth of 10.9 per cent Yoyo. This represents a net addition of 226, 000 professionals to the industry employee base in 2008-09. The indirect employment attributed to the sector is estimated to be about 8.0 million.
The industry has also set a precedent for talent practices in India. It has created career opportunities for the youth, provided global exposure and offered extensive training and development. Furthermore, the industry has been a front rammer in diversity at the workplace (over 30 per cent of employees are women; over 60 per cent of industry players employ differently baled people).
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The IT-Its industry’s contribution to the national GDP is estimated to increase from 5.5. Percent in 2007-08 to 5.8 per cent in 2008-09
The Indian software professionals have already created their brand image in the global market. Today, more than 260 of the Fortune 1,000 companies, i.e., almost one out of every four global giants, outsource their software requirements to India. India’s software industry has achieved a remarkable distinction for providing excellent quality.
A large number of Indian software companies have acquired international quality certification. Out of the top 400 companies, more than 250 have already acquired ISO 9000 certification. More importantly, 27 Indian companies have acquired SE1CMM (Software Engineering Institute Capability Maturity Model) Level 5 certification (the highest quality standard for software practices).
India’s natural resource in today’s knowledge economy is its abundant technically skilled manpower. India has the second largest pool of English speaking scientific professionals in the world today, after the U.S.
India’s success in the software arena can largely be attributed to the industry’s knowledge and expertise of cutting edge technologies. Indian software companies have constantly striven to stay abreast of global technology trends by embracing technologies that are gaining pre-eminence globally. The Indian IT-Enabled Services sector has emerged as a key driver of growth for the Indian IT industry.
The electronic industry in India constitutes just 0.7 % of the global electronic industry. Hence it is miniscule by international comparison. However the demand in the Indian market is growing rapidly and investments are flowing in to augment manufacturing capacity. India however remains a major importer of electronic materials, components and finished equipment amounting to over US$12 Billion in2005. The output of the Electronic Hardware Industry in India is worth $ 11.6 at present.
In September 2009, India had 35.8 million Internet users (excluding visits from net cafes and handhelds), up 17% year-on-year, according to web metrics firm com score. India’s growth rate is the third highest in the Asia Pacific region, China and Japan surpassing the country both in absolute number of users and in growth rates.
The global figures are estimated to cross the 1.4 billion subscriber base mark by the year 2015 with 423.65 million subscribers to subscribe to mobile internet services by the end of 2010. The growth rate in subscriber base during the period from 2009 to 2015 will be at 233%, says the research.
World’s top 2 markets for mobile services in terms of subscriber base for mobile services, China and India will together have more than one billion mobile internet subscribers by 2015. Compare this to the world’s most developed nation, Japan which will have over 100 million subscribers by that time.
The country’s software and IT-enabled services sector is set to miss its 2010 target of getting $60 billion in exports by three to four quarters on account of the global economic crisis, but is sitting on a potential opportunity to treble exports from current levels by the year 2020, global consulting firm McKinsey and Co has said.