Domestic surge overtakes IT exports

New Delhi, Sep 8 (UNI) A 34 per cent surge in home growth in 2007-08, compared to 27 per cent last year, took the total domestic information technology market to Rs 99,018 crore, reversing the decade-old trend of export growing faster than the domestic market, a study says.

Exports, which still accounted for nearly two-thirds of the IT industry at Rs 1,89,792 crore, grew at 27 per cent in 2007-08, down eight per cent from the previous year's growth, says the annual survey of IT industry by Dataquest.

Overall growth of Indian IT industry in FY-08 was 29 per cent, posting revenues of Rs 2,88,810 crore. But in dollar terms, it grew 44 per cent due its depreciation against the rupee.

The accelerated dmomestic growth helped poster boy of Indian economic renaissance in meeting challange of global meltdown, the report says.

"Despite the (global) downturn and the challenging economic climate, the top IT services companies managed to keep growth up and their margins intact. This shows the amazing resilience of the Indian IT powerhouses," said CyberMedia chairman Pradeep Gupta.

Within domestic market, hardware contributed nearly half the revenues at Rs 49,589 crore, services at Rs 26,756 crore (with a 28 per cent growth over the previous year) and software at Rs 12,179 crore (up 27 per cent growth over 2006-07).

BPO services (voice only) contributed Rs 8,600 crore, a 65 per cent growth and training at Rs 1,894 crore, up 51 per cent over the previous year.

Sale of notebooks at over two million recorded a growth of 59 per cent, twice the rate of desktops. Notebooks now form nearly one-fourth of the 8.25 million personal computers sold in the year, the report says, attributing it to the spread of computing to smaller towns and cities as well as rise in small businesses.

While sale of LCD monitors recorded a growth of 68 per cent, a whopping 4.2 million pen drives were sold in 2007-08, the report says, adding consumers also lapped up over one million digital cameras and 5,75,000 MP3 and MP4 players in the year.

The report says growth of retail consumer banking led to deployment of 9,300 new ATMs, taking the total base of ATMs in the country to 34,500. This resulted in a revenue growth of 150 per cent to Rs 699 crore.

Services sector slowed down during the year with exports recording a growth of 26 per cent in 2007-08, down 14 per cent from 39.9 per cent growth in 2006-07.

Infrastructure services emerged as the fastest growing segment in IT services exports registering a 126 per cent growth. Its share in total IT services stands at Rs 11,959 crore or nine per cent.

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