Growth in India’s exports of IT services, business process outsourcing and related services is forecast to drop to 11 to 14 percent in the Indian fiscal year to March 31, 2013 from an estimated 16.3 percent in the current fiscal year, the National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom) said.

The trade body said Wednesday it had taken into account the economic uncertainty in key markets like Europe, and delayed purchase decisions by customers, to arrive at the forecast.

India’s ability to achieve the growth forecast by Nasscom will largely depend on developments in Europe, analysts said.

Global outsourcing revenue was down 15 percent in the fourth quarter of last year, in comparison to the previous quarter, and growth is expected to stay flat through the first six months of this year, unless the economic conditions in Europe improve, said Salil Dani, research director for global sourcing at Everest Group.

Government and public-sector spending on outsourcing in Europe and the U.S., the largest market for Indian outsourcers, is also likely to take a hit, Dani added.

Client sentiment is down, and IT budgets are stagnant and even getting cut, said Sudin Apte, principal analyst and CEO of Offshore Insights, a research and advisory firm in Pune, India. Clients are not yet spending significantly on emerging technologies that were once seen as growth markets, such as cloud, mobility, social networking, and analytics, he added.

Apte expects IT services and related exports to grow by 8 to 9 percent in the fiscal year to March 31, 2013.

Nasscom’s export data includes exports to parent companies by Indian subsidiaries of multinational companies like Microsoft and Dell, commonly known as “captives”. But Dani does not expect new projects to captives to make up for lackluster business to third-party IT service providers in the country.

Cognizant Technology Solutions on Wednesday forecast its revenue would grow by at least 23 percent in 2012. The Teaneck, New Jersey, outsourcer is usually grouped with Indian outsourcers as it has 75 percent of its staff in India, and competes with Indian outsourcers like Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Infosys and Wipro both for business and staff.

In a difficult period, companies like Cognizant and TCS that understand customer needs better, and have strong domain expertise will likely grow faster than other Indian companies, Apte said.

TCS said last month that its revenue for the quarter ended Dec. 31 was US$2.6 billion, up by 20.6 percent from the same quarter a year earlier, with net profit up 9 percent at $568 million. Wipro posted lower growth in the same quarter, as the company is going through a reorganization of its business focus. Infosys, another outsourcer in Bangalore, lowered its revenue growth forecast for the fiscal year ending March 31, citing the debt crisis in Europe and an uncertain market.

Exports in the year to March 31, 2012 are expected to be $69 billion, with IT services the largest component growing at 19 percent to $40 billion, Nasscom said. Business process outsourcing is expected to grow 13 percent to $16 billion.

Source:http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9224098/Growth_in_Indian_IT_services_exports_to_slow_down_says_Nasscom

At least six major players in the IT industry are learnt to be assessing Kerala’s potential as an investment destination.

Of these, Aegis Global, business process outsourcing arm of the Essar Group, has already gone on record making its intentions clear.

‘FAVOURABLY INCLINED’

Mr Aparup Sengupta, Managing Director and Global Chief Executive Officer, Aegis Global, announced his willingness to invest in the State during an interaction with newspersons here on Friday.

Among other names mentioned in this connection are ITC Infotech, Accenture, Dell, Microsoft India and Mindtree, say industry sources. But no formal proposal has been floated by any of these, the sources hastened to add.

This has been the most important upshot from the first meeting of the Executive Council of the National Association of Software and Service companies (Nasscom) held here where top honchos of the country’s IT industry were present.

REGIONAL CHAPTER

The industry body also rolled out its activities in the State by opening a regional chapter at Technopark here.

Mr Rajendra Singh Pawar, Chairman of NIIT Technologies and who also holds charge as Chairman, Nasscom, inaugurated the facility in the presence of the Executive Council Members.

This is the eighth office of the industry body, which already has existing offices in New Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Pune.

While hailing the facilities provided in Technopark, Mr Pawar hoped the new Nasscom office would provide necessary impetus to growth of IT/ITeS industry in the State.

Mr Som Mittal, President, Nasscom, said Kerala is one of the most ideally suited States for the industry.

Setting up a branch office in Technopark signifies the importance Nasscom attaches to Kerala as an investment destination.

Source:http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/industry-and-economy/info-tech/article2506623.ece

IT industry growth may fall short of National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) projections, says iGate and Patni computer CEO Phaneesh Murthy in an interview with The Economic Times.

According to Murthy, the US economy is slowing down and IT budgets become conservative in a pessimistic macro economy.

Murthy believes IT industry will grow just 12-13 per cent unlike what NASSCOM has predicted.

Recently, NASSCOM in a BPO summit has said that despite the economic slowdown, Indian IT sector is still expected to grow 16-18 per cent by 2012.

During the summit NASSCOM had come up with a report that gave names of top 15 BPO exporters in India for the year 2010-11.

According to the report, GENPACT India holds the top position followed by the companies like Tata Consultancy Services BPO, WNS Global Services , Aegis , Wipro BPO, Firstsource Solutions ,Infosys BPO, Aditya Birla Minacs Worldwide, exl Service.com (India), Hinduja Global Solutions , Intelenet Global Services , HCL Technologies, Business Services, HOV Services, 3i Infotech and MphasiS.

According to Som Mittal, president, NASSCOM, while the global macro- economic continues to be uncertain, the BPO industry in India has been rapidly transforming itself to offer end-to-end services for its customers.

Recently, S.D. Shibulal, the new CEO of Indian software exporter Infosys Ltd also said that clients might curb their budget plan on information technology this year in a media statement.

According to the CEO, the economic slowdown in the US and Europe is the main cause of the delay of the spending decision for clients.

No matter what the economic scenario is, major IT players like Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS) and smaller players are in an intense competition with each other and ready for any tough time.

Early this year NASSCOM had also given a report on Indian IT industry’s plan of hiring 2.5 lakh professionals during this fiscal year. As per the reports, the leading information, communications and technology company, Mahindra Satyam will hire 18,000 people, whereas, TCS is likely to rope in approximately 60,000 people.

Source:http://www.itpro.in/626449/growth-of-it-industry-may-not-match-nasscom-prediction

The momentum for outsourcing services business is positive and the 16-18 per cent growth estimates for IT exports from India in the current fiscal is achievable, industry body NASSCOM said today.

“The momentum is positive”, President of the National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) Som Mittal said here.

“There will be all time concerns about deficit financing. Inflation by and large is not impacting this (IT exports) momentum and we continue to keep our guidance of 16-18 per cent”, he told reporters on the sidelines of a function.

“I think it is achievable”, he added. In January, the Indian IT industry went to the campuses and made about 1,50,000 recruitment offerings, Mittal said, adding that companies would not make such offerings if they were not confident about the business growth.

Source:http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/economy/foreign-trade/16-18-it-export-target-this-fiscal-achievable-nasscom/articleshow/8965438.cms