As the year progressed, the top 20 firms managed to survive the slowdown since the middle of 2008 by tightening their belts and exploring new geographies, but small and medium vendors took the brunt, leading to mass layoffs and dwindling compensations.
But 2010, they hope, will bring the much-needed respite.
“It has been a year of shock and awe, as it began with the world looking like coming to an end. But as the months passed, the world changed and the market became more competitive,” said T.V. Mohandas Pai, director of IT bellwether Infosys.
“Hope and growth are coming back as we enter 2010,” Pai told IANS.
The tech industry shrugged off the Satyam fiasco as a one-off scam. The government intervened to pull it out of a financial quagmire and minimise its impact on exports and the Mahindras bailed out the Hyderabad-based firm by acquiring it.
But for the industry as a whole, the global recession and slowdown posed a challenge that saw vendors pulling all stops to stay afloat, even as downsizing at corporate houses overseas presented new avenues for outsourcing.
“Though the year gone by was challenging, it was also satisfying by many counts,” said Suresh Senapaty, chief financial officer of Wipro, among the top three IT exporters in the country.
“Given the overall economic climate in the background of the global financial crisis, we revisited our business model fundamentals and fine-tuned it to the changing customer needs,” Senapaty told IANS.
After a compounded export growth of over 30 percent since the dotcom bust in 2003-04, the software sector saw export growth plunging to 16.3 percent (to $46 billion) last fiscal as against 27 percent (to $40 billion) in 2007-08.
Source : http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/infotech/ites/Indias-tech-industry-relieved-as-Year-of-Satyam-blows-over/articleshow/5384130.cms
