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India's software and services exports growth slowed to 52 per cent in the first quarter of 2001-02 (April-June) compared to 65 per cent in the same period last year. This is, however, higher than the 51 per cent growth the sector had registered during the first quarter of 1999-2000. This is result of survey conducted by NASSCOM (National Association of Software and Service Companies), the apex industry association of IT Software and Service companies in India.
Export revenues for the IT software and services for the first quarter of 2001-02 were pegged at Rs 8,600 crore against Rs 5,670 crore during the same period last year. The first quarter export earnings at Rs 8,600 crore are about 21.5 per cent of the overall projected export earning for the year (Rs 40,000 crore). Despite the slowdown, the contribution of the IT software and services export revenue to the overall software services export earnings has increased from 20 per cent in Q1 of 2000-01 to 21.5 per cent in the same period of 2001-02. Banking, insurance and financial sectors had been a high growth area, whereas telecom sector witnessed some slowdown.
Q1 has also witnessed a new trend of large global corporates outsourcing mission-critical projects to India. This indicates the end of the first generation of outsourcing model. Traditionally, global corporations used to outsource 70-80 man year projects, but the trend now is outsourcing to the scale of 300-400 man-year projects.
According to Nasscom, Q1 results clearly indicated that the situation was not as gloomy as painted. Although, the growth in percentage terms has dipped, the industry still continues to grow at a steady pace.
NASSCOM had projected export revenues of Rs. 40,000 crore for the year financial year 2001-02 and we are confident that with the excellent growth in the first quarter and based on a relatively flat growth of 8-15% for Q2 to Q4 in the financial year 2001-02, the target will be met. Software exports of Rs. 40,000 crore in year 2001-02 will represent a 41% growth over last year's software and service export revenues which was Rs. 28,350 crore.
The IT-enabled services sector is expected to witness a growth of 54 per cent with revenues estimated to touch Rs 6,300 crore in the current fiscal.Growth of call centers and business process outsourcing in the first quarter of 2001-02 has reaffirmed the fact that IT-enabled services sector is the next growth driver of the industry. During Q2 to Q4, the country's strong technical expertise in embedded software, software maintenance, application development, research and development (R&D) will push the growth up.
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